


The Three Souls of Harry James Potter (Archived)

by LordCroussette



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Soul-bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27930235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordCroussette/pseuds/LordCroussette
Summary: THIS FANFICTION WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FANFICTION.NET BUT REMOVED AFTER IT BECAME CLEAR THAT I WOUDLN'T UPDATE IT ANY FURTHER. THE CURRENT POST IS MEANT AS AN ARCHIVE FOR THE ORIGINAL STORY AND WON'T BE CONTINUED...THIS STORY ALSO USE A LOT OF TEXT FROM HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE FROM J.K. ROWLING WHICH IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS WHY I ABANDONNED THIS STORY BECAUSE IT WAS BORING TO WRITE! :)THIS WAS ALSO MY FIRST EVER FANFICTION AND MY FIRST EVER STORY WRITTEN IN ENGLISH.When James and Lily learn about the Prophecy and about the fact that Harry is targetted by Voldemort, the couple goes into hiding before they start looking for rituals that could save Harry if they are attacked.When Voldemort attack the Potters, the ritual does it work and result in James and Lily's souls to 'link'/'Bond' to Harry's, forcing them to stay in the World of the Living, inside their son's body. It does allow for mental talk however....
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You might see that the writing quality of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 is higher than the rest of the story. It's simply because I had rewriten them later on. ;)

The Potters were a new young family living in the village of Godric’s Hollow in the United Kingdom. James Potter had lived in the village ever since his childhood when his parents, Mr. Fleamont Potter and Mrs. Euphemia Potter, moved there after their previous home was burned down in a fire. The Potters had lived in the village ever since and when James married the girl he loved, he and his new wife Lily moved into a small cottage somewhere else in town. The new married couple was happy despite the war that was claiming new victims every day. The couple was, of course, doing their part in the war against the Dark Wizard known as Lord Voldemort, but they were also wanted to start their own family. A few years later, James and Lily’s son Harry was born and brought a whole new level of love and happiness to the new family. 

The Potters were sad when James’ parents succumbed to Dragon Pox. They had inherited Fleamont and Euphemia’s house which was bigger than their cottage, but they loved their little cozy home so much that they decided to stay there. 

It was a few months after little Harry’s first birthday when their lives changed. James and Lily had just come back from the park where they played with their son when a man’s head emerged from the fireplace. 

“Lily?” an old, bearded man asked. “Can I come through? There is something important I need to tell you and James in private.” 

“Yes of course Professor. Come in.” said Lily. 

The man smiled and his head disappeared. A few moments later, the man came through the fireplace. The man was quite old, with a long white beard and extravagant purple robes. 

“Hello Professor Dumbledore.” Said James coming back from putting Harry in the nursery upstairs. “What brings you here today?” he asked. 

“Can we go to the parlour? I think it is better if you sit down for what I am about to reveal to you.” He said seriously. 

James and Lily looked at each other. The tone of Dumbledore’s voice was not reassuring. Both feared that the Professor would announce one of their friend’s death and joined Dumbledore waiting for the inevitable. 

“Has someone died?” asked Lily, going straight to the point. 

“Nothing of the sort my dear.” Said Dumbledore. “But I am afraid it is something as worse. A few days ago, I was interviewing an applicant for the Divination teacher for Hogwarts.” 

“What was the point?” snorted James. “The divination class was always a load of rubbish.” 

“I had also similar thoughts when I went for this interview. I must admit I was disappointed. It became quite clear after a few minutes that the applicant showed no signs of possessing the gift herself. I told her that I did not think she would be suitable for the post and turned to leave. That is when the applicant made a prophecy, a real prophecy. What I am about to tell you must stay confidential. You must not tell anyone else.” Said Dumbledore. Both James and Lily nodded. Seeing as the couple had their attention completely focused on the Professor. 

“The Prophecy goes as follows: _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. … Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. … The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies. …_ ” 

Lily gasped. Always the bright witch, she immediately understood why Professor Dumbledore told them the Prophecy. 

“You mean… our son?” asked Lily with a tone of fear in her voice. 

James paled. “You can’t be serious Albus.” He said. “You are telling us that Harry will be the one to defeat Voldemort? He is only a year-old!” 

“I am aware of that James. The prophecy could be about a different child. Can you think of anyone born at the end of July, born of parents who have thrice defied him?” 

“Alice’s son Neville!” said Lily. 

“Indeed, it would be. But I am afraid that your son is in more danger than little Neville. The first two lines; ‘ _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. … Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies …’_ , has been heard by a Death Eater who reported it to his Master. The Death Eater switched sides and became a spy for our side a few days later and told me that Lord Voldemort specifically targeted your son.” 

James’ face was now white, and he had an arm around his wife while Lily was slowly crying on his shoulder, taking comfort in the touch of her husband. 

“What I am asking you to do,” continued Dumbledore, “is to go into hiding. My suggestion is to put your home,” he said while waving his arms around indicating the house “under the Fidelius Charm. If you want, I can become your Secret-Keeper.” 

“I think the Fidelius is a good idea.” Said Lily. She looked at her husband. “What do you think love?” 

“I agree with the Fidelius idea as well, but I think I would prefer Sirius for the Secret-Keeper. I trust him with my life as well as the life of our son.” 

Lily nodded. “I think we can do that. Thank you Albus for telling us.” 

“No need to thank me.” The old man said. “I wish for you and your son safety as much as you. If you need help or decide to change ideas about the Secret-Keeper just contact me to my office.” He said before leaving through the fireplace. 

* * *

The next day, the couple had made their decision. They were now waiting for Harry’s godfather and James’ best friend to come around at their house as they had invited Sirius to dinner. There was a knock at the door and James opened it slightly, pointing his wand at the man outside. 

“What happened on Sunday October 8th, 1972?” asked James to the man. 

“It was the weekend where we learned about Moony’s little furry problem.” The man said. 

James opened the door fully. “Padfoot!” he said. “Come in, quickly.” He added while looking behind him for anything suspicious before closing the door. 

“What got your antlers all fired-up Prongs?” asked Sirius Black to his best friend. 

“That is what we want to talk about.” Said Lily who was near the duo. 

“Lily-pad!” Sirius grinned while giving her a hug. 

“Sirius!” Lily said while giving him his hug back. “I told you not to call me like that!” she added. “Anyway, if you boys are hungry dinner is ready and waiting for us.” 

“Where is little Prongslet?” Sirius asked. 

“He already ate and is currently sleeping in the nursery upstairs” said James. 

A while later, once the Potters and Sirius were done eating, Sirius said “Not that I don’t enjoy eating with you from time to time, delicious dinner by-the-way Lily,” he added, “but I feel like there is something important you want to talk about. What is it?” he asked. 

“Well Sirius,” James started. “Dumbledore came here yesterday and told us that he heard a prophecy.” 

Sirius began laughing but it died quickly at the somber looks his friend had. “Wait, are you serious?” Sirius said seriously. 

Lily nodded. “Apparently Professor Dumbledore was interviewing a candidate for the post of Divination Teacher for Hogwarts and the candidate did a real prophecy. It goes as follows: _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. … Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. … The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies. …_ ” 

Sirius paled and had his mouth wide opened. “Does that mean…” 

“From what Albus told us,” James said, “Our son, Harry, is the one from the prophecy. Apparently, Voldemort learned the first two lines and decided that Harry was the one the prophecy is about and decided to… to get rid of him.” 

“We need your help Sirius.” Lily added, a tear rolling down her left cheek. “Professor Dumbledore suggested that we should put our house under the Fidelius Charm. We want you to be our Secret-Keeper.” She said. 

Sirius looked at Lily, then he looked at James. “While I am honoured that you would choose me to be your Secret-Keeper, I don’t think it is a good idea.” He said. 

“Why not?” asked James. 

“I just feel like I am too obvious of a choice. Everyone know we are brothers in everything but blood. I fear that if I get captured and tortured, I would eventually leak the Secret even if I try my best to keep it. I think it would be better if it was someone else. I could act as a decoy so if I get captured and tortured, I won’t be able to leak it even if I wanted to.” 

“Who would you suggest?” asked Lily. 

“I am not sure. We need someone that is not too obvious.” He though for a few moments. “I know!” he said. “You should make Wormtail your Secret-Keeper!” 

“Are you sure it would be a good idea?” she asked. 

“I think, if he is also in hiding, it could work. Let me tell you I could do that as well, but I know myself too much and I won’t be able to stay hidden doing nothing while people are dying fighting Voldemort. It would not work for me; I know I would eventually come out and it would be in a reckless way that would guarantee my capture or death.” 

“You are right. Personally, I think your idea as merits. What about you love?” asked James while looking at Lily. 

Lily hesitated. “I think we can go with that idea although I personally would still prefer if you were the Secret-Keeper Sirius.” 

“I would prefer if I could too but like I said earlier, I am too obvious of a target and I don’t want to betray your location, even if I get captured.” Sirius answered. 

“Alright then let’s do that. Do you know if Peter could come here now?” 

“I think he should be able to. I met with him just before coming here. He should be at home currently.” 

“Do you mind calling him and telling him to come?” James asked. 

“Not at all.” Sirius answered before he went to the fireplace, took some Floo Powder, threw it at the fire and said “Peter Pettigrew!”. The fire roared green and Sirius put his head through it. 

“Wormtail!” shouted Sirius once he saw the inside of Peter’s house. 

“Wh-what is it Sirius?” Peter asked when he saw Sirius’ head in his fireplace. 

“Do you mind coming over James’ house? We need to talk to you.” He added before disappearing. 

Peter casted the fireplace an anxious look before throwing some Floo Powder and shouting: “Potter Cottage!”. 

“There you are!” said Sirius’ voice once he arrived at the Potter’s house. “Come on, James and Lily are waiting for us in the dining room.” He added. 

“Ah! Wormy!” James greeted with a grin once they entered the dining room. 

“I-I told you not to call me like that James.” Said Peter with a hidden tone of anger. 

“Alright then. We need your help.” 

“My help?” said Peter, surprised. 

“Yes, your help. Albus think Voldemort is targeting us and we need to put our house under the Fidelius Charm, fast. We proposed to Sirius to have him our Secret-Keeper, but he thinks he is too obvious. He suggested that we take you as our Secret-Keeper and we agreed. What do you think?” 

Peter was surprised. When he arrived, he feared that they had discovered his secret and wanted to confront him. But instead, the Potters told him that the Dark Lord was targeting them and wanted to hide behind a Fidelius with him as their Secret-Keeper! He knew his Master would be happy to have the information, so he decided to accept their offer. 

“I’ll do it.” Said Peter. 

James grinned. “Alright let’s do it now then. I trust our Charm Mistress can do it?” he said teasingly to his wife. 

“Do you really need to ask?” she said with a smile. 

* * *

“M-my lord.” Said Peter Pettigrew, on his knees. Peter was currently at Voldemort’s hidden base of operation, in his ‘ _throne-room’._

“What information do you bring Wormtail?” hissed Lord Voldemort. 

“My lord, the Potters learned that you targeted them and decided to hide under a Fidelius-Charm.” 

“And who is the Secret-Keeper?” said Voldemort, his red eyes looking at the crouching Peter Pettigrew. 

“They originally wanted Black to be their Secret-Keeper but since he though he was too obvious of a choice they decided to name me their Secret-Keeper.” He said quickly. 

Lord Voldemort grinned evilly. The Potters were unknowingly opening their front door to him. Now all he had to do was choose a date where he would attack. Halloween was coming soon; it would be an excellent cover for his activities. He could go in and out before anyone noticed anything was wrong. 

“Tell me then Wormtail, where is the Potter’s house located?” 

* * *

Their house might now be protected under the Fidelius Charm, but James and Lily did not rest. They knew that even with the hidden switch of Secret-Keepers, it was still possible for the Secret to be leaked. The Potters wanted to ensure their son’s survival and knowing that Voldemort was the most likely to attack them personally, and that he loved using the Killing Curse, the Potters centered all of their time on researching how to block the Killing Curse. So far, they had no luck. 

James decided one day to make a secret visit to Knockturn Alley. To keep his identity secret, James decided to wear a long black cloak with a hood that would hide most of his face. He also wore contact lenses, not something he would usually do as he hated them, but it was necessary since his glasses were as much part of his look as his hair and eyes. 

“Be safe, will you?” said Lily, hugging his husband. 

“Always.” Said James before kissing his wife. He left his house and apparated away to an alleyway on the muggle side of the Leaky Cauldron. He went through the Leaky Cauldron, ignoring Tom the barman and owner of the place, and everyone else, before going to Diagon Alley. Since it was late at night, there was barely anyone in the Alley. That did not reassure James, but he knew that he had more to worry about. The safety of his son was his top-most priority. 

James spent almost the whole night exploring Knockturn Alley and its multiple shops. He went in many shops, looking for anything that could help diffuse or block the Killing Curse. When the morning was near, James decided to go in the only shop that he had avoided so far as it seamed too obvious: Borgin & Burkes. 

James looked at the shop from the outside. In his head, it was a waste of time to go in this shop as it was too well known and if anything in here could protect someone from the Killing Curse, it would probably already be gone. He sighed. After this one, he would go home. He was tired and missed his son and wife. He just hoped that he could come back another night and find something useful. 

James entered the shop and looked around. The shop, like many others in Knockturn Alley, looked dirty and grimy. The shopkeeper, Mr. Borgin, was looking at him with disinterested eyes. Hooded figures were not a rare sight in his shop. 

James looked around. He started by looking at any object that could block curses, preferably wearable like a necklace or ring. After a while, Mr. Borgin asked him if he needed help. James shook his head. He did not want to use his voice unless necessary. He had put a charm before leaving his home to disguise his voice, but he still feared that people would recognize him if he spoke. Once looking at the objects failed to give him anything interesting, James turned around to the books. He quickly found a book about rituals, some of them in the book looked quite promising. He found a few pages on Horcruxes and the definition looked interesting until he read the first two lines of the description of an Horcrux and quickly changed pages, his face green. He _DEFINITETLY_ did not want to do that! When he looked at the random page he had turned to, it showed another ritual. This one looked promising and relied on the love of someone instead of murder. What it was doing in the same book as Horcruxes, James would never know. James read the effects of the ritual and his eyes lit. This ritual sounded too good to be true. He would have to show it to Lily to get her opinion. It was time to leave. He had found something promising and anyway he was tired, and Lily was probably worrying to death. He bought the book, went back to Diagon Alley, back to the Leaky Cauldron then left to the Muggle side and Apparated away. 

* * *

James entered his home and removed his black cloak. He was tired but since it was early morning, he decided to have a look around to see if Lily was awake. James found her asleep on one of the couches in the parlour with Harry in her arms, also asleep. He felt a strong feeling of love. That sight reminded him too well of what he was fighting for. Knowing Lily would probably shout at him for arriving late, accidentally disturbing Harry’s sleep, he took a quick picture before James took his son in his arms and put him in his crib in the nursery. He then went back downstairs and slowly shook Lily awake. 

“Fiv’ more min’tes James.” She said before opening her eyes wide open, looked at James and screamed “JAMES!” before throwing herself at her husband. “Wait where is Harry!” she panicked. 

James chuckled. “Don’t worry love, I kind of expected that reaction so I putted him in his crib so that you wouldn’t disturb his sleep.” He said before kissing her forehead. 

“What took you so long?” she asked half-angry, half-crying. Lily was not a crying woman but the stress of having her whole family in danger made her emotions more visible. 

“I am sorry, love. I just really tried to find something, anything that I explored the whole of Knockturn Alley to find something.” 

“And did you find something?” 

“The only promising thing I found was a book on rituals in, guess this, Borgin & Burkes..” 

“Borgin & Burkes? It is near the entrance of the Alley, why did it take so long?” 

“Because I went there last. I thought that it would be impossible to find anything useful there considering how well known this shop is. It is only as I was exiting the Alley and passed in front of it that I decided to give it a chance. Well for some reason the only useful thing I found happened to be there. Would have saved me a whole lot of time had I gone there at the beginning.” 

“Then, what is the ritual you found?” 

James took out the book, went to the right page and gave it to her. Lily read the ritual and her eyebrows shoot up. “You think we can do that?” 

“I think we can yes. That is the only thing I found that could work that is not some heavy Dark Magic. And this one is based on love, so it is more akin to Light Magic. And it has the nice side-effect to allowing us to connect our souls to Harry which would make us able to still be there and talk to him if anything was to happen to us.” 

“I just don’t like that it requires a sacrifice.” Said Lily. 

“Don’t worry about that. I read the information about the ritual a couple of times and there is nothing that say that the sacrifice as to happen at the moment of the ritual. I think we can both do it and put ourselves on stand-by. Anyway, we don’t have to worry about Harry getting attacked before the ritual activates as I would rather die than see a single curse being shot at our son.” 

“So, we could just do the ritual and if we are attacked, we protect Harry as best as we can. And if we die, then we would power up the protection around Harry. We will know that it worked if Harry start glowing blue.” 

“Yes.” 

“Then let’s do that today then.” Said Lily. “No point in waiting when we have a Dark Lord around our asses.” 

“I prefer to be the only one around yours…” teased James which earned him a light hit on the arm by his wife. 


	2. Chapter 2

The young Potter family had now been in hiding for two weeks. When the Potters learned of the prophecy and the target Voldemort had painted on their one-year-old son, they lost a lot of sleep over it. Nights were spent silently holding each other in their arms. It became better once they put their house under Fidelius but even then, they still were on edge. What James and Lily wanted the most in the world was to see their son safe and having the worst Dark Wizard of the last millennium after your baby son definitely did not help you sleep at night. Things became better again once the Potters had performed the ritual as they knew that if they died, their son would be protected from the evilest of curses. The ritual that protected Harry also had a nice side-effect. Since it needed someone’s magical power to power the protection, if they were to die, James and Lily’s souls would not depart the world but would instead link themselves on Harry to help power the protection. Because of that, it would allow them to live through their son, quite literally. They would be able to see everything Harry saw, hear anything Harry heard and be able to speak to him in his mind. They would not be allowed to control Harry’s body but then again, they never wanted to do that in the first place.

James Potter was currently in the sitting room playing with Harry. With his wand, James was making puffs of coloured smoke that made the young child laugh of excitement. James had not left the house once since he went to Knockturn Alley, as much as he wanted to do so, so he was entertaining himself as much as he was entertaining Harry.

"I can't believe that you can calm him down with something so simple!" said Lily with a smile on her face. "Seriously, I tried many different things to turn his attention to and smoke is what amuse him the most?"

"Would you prefer that I put him on the broomstick Padfoot gave him for his birthday?" answered James with a big grin. "Here, take  Harry , I think he is beginning to tire,  and I need to go prepare our late dinner.”

Lily did not have time to answer as at the same moment the front door was blasted open and a tall, bone white figure with big red eyes looked at them.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Lily barely managed to make it upstairs before she heard a bone-chilling laugh and then the words " AVADA KEDAVRA !" and suddenly James Potter found himself in his wife's arms. Lily saw her son glow slightly in blue. She realised that the ritual had worked, and James was now dead.

JAMES!"  screamed Lily . She knew he was technically still alive in Harry, but the pain was still there.

James Potter felt tortured to have to witness what was happening. Now that he was dead and stuck in his son's mind, he could do nothing but watch as Lord Voldemort entered the nursery and pointed her wand at her.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside,  you silly girl … stand aside, now."

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead ! "

"This is my last warning ! "

"Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy. … Not Harry! Not Harry! Please ! I'll do anything ! "

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

James could not handle himself. How he wished he could jump out of the crib and put himself in front of Lily, do anything to protect her even something as stupid as punching the Dark Lord in the face. Anything. But he could only watch. He knew Harry was now safe, his death assured his protection, but Lily was not protected, and he could not bear to watch her die.

" AVADA KEDAVRA !" and the woman's body fell on the ground.

" _ NOO _ !" screamed  both James and  Lily's voice from inside Harry's mind.

" _ Harry! James!" _

" _ LILY!" _

_ “I’m sorry!” _ sobbed Lily voice through the new mental connection.  _ “I failed!” _

_ “You did not fail Lily. You willingly put yourself in front of Harry to give him any chance of survival even if you knew you would die. You died protecting our son, I hardly consider it a failure! If anyone failed, it would be me. I did not even have my bloody wand! I was not even able to buy you and Harry some time!” _

Lord Voldemort saw Harry Potter slightly glow blue right after he had killed Lily Potter. His eyes narrowed but he paid no mind. He had a mission to accomplish, he would strike down the one that was predicted to potentially defeat him, while he was still a baby. He crackled a laugh.

Harry had never been that confused before. He could hear his mother and father's panicked voices, but they did not seam to come from anywhere , nor  did the figure in front of him act like there was anyone else . His mother was currently on the floor. Harry tough that the figure standing there was his father in disguise and that his mother would pop up any moment laughing. But the distressed voices of his parents and the evil laugh of the figure only scared  him, and he started to cry.

Voldemort hated that sound. He never liked hearing children crying, he had enough of that in a lifetime from his childhood and he could not stomach it.

"A VADA KEDAVRA !" screamed Lord Voldemort for the final time. He thought he had beaten the prophecy and for a fraction of second, he felt great happiness. Now nobody would be in the way of Lord Voldemort! And then the curse rebounded toward him. So unexpected it was that Voldemort could do nothing but stand there like a deer facing a pair of headlights. And suddenly he was broken. The magical backlash from the rebounding Killing Curse on the magical protection of both James and Lily Potter created an explosion which blew away part of the roof. All that was left standing in the rubbles of the ruined room were a black cloak, Lord Voldemort's wand and a one-year old child with a lightning bolt shaped cut on the forehead and with the souls of his parents living trough him.

* * *

James and Lily were shocked at the result of their ritual. They expected their protection would absorb the Killing Curse, but they did not expect for it to rebound straight into Voldemort and defeating him. Even less, they did not think he was going to blow up and destroy half of the room with him. Now that Voldemort was unexpectedly defeated and their son was relatively safe, for the moment, James and Lily started mind-speaking to one another.

_ “How did they find us?” _ asked James.  _ “We know Sirius was never attacked; shit he was there this morning!” _

_ “Do you think they found Peter?” _

_ “Maybe, but I thought the decoy plan would last longer than that. I did not think they would realise Peter was our Secret-Keeper so soon!” _

As if to answer his question, a figure appeared in the room. A small chubby figure, in Death Eater robes.

_ "WORMTAIL! _ _ I can’t believe it!  _ _ Fucking traitor!" _ said a raging James. Harry started crying harder and his parents quickly remembered that they were now in Harry’s mind and that he was the only one, apart from each other, capable of hearing them. While Lily was whispering comforting words to Harry, James was looking at his former friend.

Peter looked around the room. He could see the Potter brat crying in his crib, but he paid no mind. What he wanted to know is what happened to his Master. It is when he found the cloak and wand of Lord Voldemort lying on the ground. Peter suddenly realised that his Master had been defeated  and decided to take the wand so that he would be able to give it to him if he found him again. With a glance at young Harry, Peter suddenly pointed Voldemort’s wand at Harry, something that surprised both James and Lily, before he changed his mind. After all, if his Master failed in killing the boy, he would have no chances in doing so. With one last look at Harry, he ran away.

James was shocked. He was never as close to Peter as he was to Sirius or Remus, but he did not expect that from one of his best friends. Bloody hell, he even pointed a wand at his and Lily’s son! Had James still had a body, he would have strangled him! A fellow-Marauder betraying him, his wife and son to the enemy, he could not believe it.

Neither Potter said anything for the next few minutes. That was until another figure showed up in the house. They only heard crying at first, until Sirius Black showed up in the nursery and looked at Lily, absolutely destroyed inside.

_ "Thank Merlin. Padfoot is here to take Harry out of this place!" _

"Lily!" cried Sirius. "Not you too please!" as he crouched and took Lily's body in his arms as he cried for the lost of his two best friends.

" Pafoo !" said Harry extending his arms toward him.

Sirius looked up in shock. He had not been able to make himself look at him before, believing him to also be dead. Sirius carefully put Lily’s body back on the floor and went over to the half-destroyed crib. 

“Hey Prongslet.” Said Sirius with a small smile but still crying. As much as it destroyed him to see two of his best friends dead, and knowing that another one was the reason why, it made him absolutely happy to see his godson alive, apparently having somehow defeated Voldemort if he were to look at the black cloak near the room’s entrance. Sirius took the toddler in his arms and started wiping the blood, before putting a healing charm on the cut. It left a lightning bolt shaped scar behind, but Sirius did not pay more attention to it. It was the best he could do and anyway his godson now had a cool-looking scar.

"Sirius is that you!? " launched a new voice from downstairs.

“Hagrid?” Sirius asked while going downstairs to meet the half-giant. “What are you doing here?”

“Professor Dumbledore learned that the Potters were attacked and sent me to see if there were any survivors.”

“James and Lily did not make it.” Sirius said with a sob. “But little Harry there did, somehow.” He added.

Hagrid was now crying at hearing the news, but like Sirius, it made him happy to see that little Harry survived.

“Sirius.” Hagrid said. “Professor Dumbledore asked me to bring any survivors to the Hogwarts Hospital Wing. You need to give me little ‘ Arry here.”

Sirius hesitated a moment. He looked at Hagrid, then at Harry and finally at James’ body which was not far away. His face started showing a lot of anger. He  gave Harry  to Hagrid and said “Take  my flying motorcycle Hagrid. You will need it more than me now. I have something to do. I will come back for Harry and see him in the Hospital Wing.” He said before putting the keys in Hagrid’s hand. He kissed Harry’s forehead, who was looking at him with big eyes and said. “See you later Pup.” and Apparated away.

_ “Wait no!” _ suddenly said Lily right before Sirius Apparated away, forgetting that he couldn’t hear her.  _ “You should have gone there with Harry and Hagrid Sirius!” _ she said with heavy disappointment. As Harry’s godfather, Harry was now his responsibility.

"You alright Harry?" said Hagrid. He then closed the front door and climbed on the bike and putted small Harry on his chest in his coat. "I think Professor Dumbledore is waiting for us at Hogwarts." he said and quickly they were in the air. Harry eventually fell asleep of exhaustion an hour after takeoff, taking the spirits of James and Lily with him. Harry wouldn’t wake up until he arrived to Privet Drive. James and Lily would take a much, much longer time to wake up.

Albus Dumbledore was currently in his office at Hogwarts Castle working. Today was the 31 st of October and Hogwarts just  had its annual Halloween feast. Dumbledore felt sleepy, but he just had one last parchment to complete before he could retire to his bedroom. While he was working on that parchment, two of his magical items on his desk started producing red and black smoke. Dumbledore was shocked.  These two monitored James and Lily Potter’s condition, something he had made the day he told the prophecy to them. He looked at the third one and waited, too shocked to do anything. The third one was monitoring Harry Potter, but it never stopped functioning. Dumbledore’s mind finally kickstarted again and quickly sent a message to Rubeus Hagrid where he asked him to go to the Potter’s Cottage in Godric’s Hollow and look if there were any survivors.

Dumbledore barely slept that night. The next morning, Albus received a message from Hagrid, telling him that he found Harry still alive and had brought him to the Hospital Wing. Dumbledore quickly made his way there, shocking a few students that had never seen the old Headmaster running in the halls. Dumbledore quickly entered the Hospital Wing and as he looked at Harry Potter asleep on one of the beds. The school Healer, Poppy Pomfrey, looking over him while Hagrid was at Harry’s bedside. He asked: “Poppy, how is he?”

“From what I can tell, he is just fine. He suffered from magical exhaustion, something that is not usually seen on one-year-olds. He should wake up around tomorrow morning. ”

“How long should he have to stay here?” he asked.

“I think he should stay here for the next few hours, just to be sure.” She answered.

“Hagrid.” Dumbledore said. “Is it true? Are James and Lily dead?”

Hagrid looked at him, tears on his cheeks and nodded. “I saw James’ body myself.” He said. “Sirius told me that Lily had also died when he brought Harry.”

Dumbledore became alarmed. “Sirius Black was there?” he asked.

“Yeah. When I arrived, he was upstairs in the nursery. We met and when I told him that you wanted me to bring Harry here, he gave him to me and told me to take his motorcycle before Apparating away.”

Dumbledore was shocked. He knew Sirius Black was the Potter’s Secret-Keeper, Lily herself had told him that. The fact that Sirius was in the house so soon after the attack on the Potters was not lost on the old Headmaster and realised that the only reason he was there would be to finish the job. It was a good thing that he had given Harry to Hagrid, he probably did not want to blow up his cover.

Dumbledore knew the Potters had been attacked but he did not know by who and why. Of course, he had strong suspicions about who did it, but he needed proof. Once leaving the grounds of Hogwarts, Dumbledore Apparated away to Godric’s Hollow, near the Cottage of the Potters. At that point, there was a small crowd near the Potter Cottage. Dumbledore recognised a few witches and wizards but most were muggles. Police officers had arrived and were already investigating the scene. Before Dumbledore could do anything, he saw Aurors arrive as well and they quickly took over. Dumbledore joined them. Working together, Dumbledore and the  Aurors managed to recreate the scene and concluded that Voldemort had somehow been defeated when he tried to cast the Killing Curse at baby Harry Potter. When he came back to Hogwarts that afternoon, word that Voldemort had been defeated had already crossed the country and people were celebrating the end of his reign of terror.

That night, during dinner, Dumbledore decided to announce it officially to the student population.

“Last night, Lord Voldemort attacked the house of the Potter family. He managed to kill James and Lily before he pointed his wand to their unique son Harry. Somehow, that night, Voldemort’s Killing Curse rebounded and  striked Voldemort, defeating him.” Before he could continue, the whole hall cheered. Only a few in the upper years and the Professors that knew James and Lily didn’t celebrate. “While I am happy to report that Voldemort is no longer a threat, we have to remember that this has come with the cost of a young family. A boy is now an orphan and will not be able to grow with his mother and father. I would like a minute of silence to mourn the Potters and everyone we lost in the war against Voldemort.” For a whole minute, the hall was completely silent. After the minute of silence, Dumbledore finished. “At last, I would like to make a toast to Harry Potter, the small orphaned boy who got us rid of Voldemort. To Harry Potter!” he said loudly.

“TO HARRY POTTER!” shouted everyone else as one.


	3. Chapter 3

**_November 1 st, 1981_ **

Harry was woken up in the early hours of the morning by a terrified scream as she opened the front door of Number 4 Privet Drive to put out the milk bottles.

 _“Oh dear.”_ James’ voice said. _“Petunia just found Harry. I would not be surprised if she just left him there.”_

Petunia, not knowing that the spirits of her younger sister and her husband were currently watching her took the letter that was in Harry’s hands and started to read it.

“VERNON!” she shouted.

“What is it dear.” Said one of the biggest man James and Lily had ever seen.

“Look at this!” said Petunia. “They just had to get themselves blown-up and we got stuck with their _freak_ of a son without asking if we wanted him in the first place!”

 _“FREAK!?”_ shouted James which made Harry start to cry at the voice of his angered father. _“Oh she is lucky I am dead or I would hex her right there!”_

Lily’s reaction to Petunia’s statement was the total opposite of James. Once James finished his rant, Lily started to cry. Lily knew that Petunia didn’t like her ever since Lily was accepted into Hogwarts and she was not, but she at least expected a reaction, any reaction to her death than just anger at a new inconvenience in her _perfect_ life.

While James was trying his best to console his wife when he was only able to interact with her with his voice, Vernon and Petunia Dursley were continuing their argument over if they should take Harry or not. Vernon obviously did not want him in his house, but Petunia brought up something that was written in the letter about how Albus Dumbledore put out blood wards around the house which would ensure Harry’s safety against outsiders who wanted him harm. Of course, this fact did not go unnoticed to the Potters.

 _“Harry is here because of blood wards? Why?”_ ranted Lily. _“I know they can have their uses but how is Harry safer here than let’s say with Sirius or another wizarding family with a heavily warded house than here with simple blood wards? Why does Albus Dumbledore think that Harry will be safest HERE?”_

_“I don’t know why he thought it was a good idea but once Harry goes to Hogwarts and can relay our messages to him, I will give him a piece of my mind!”_

Another chock Lily and James received from their in-laws was when Vernon Dursley said “Alright, we will take him here, but I want none of that _freakiness_ inside my house. I will beat it out of him if it is necessary!”

 _“No no no no no that can’t be happening”_ Lily said. They were currently in a nightmare. This could not possibly be real! Their son was condemned to a horrible childhood all because a old manipulative Headmaster thought it was a good idea for Harry to live with the Dursleys. All because of a _fucking_ blood ward.

 _“DAMN YOU ALBUS DUMBLEDORE”_ shouted James.

* * *

**_July 31 st, 1982_ **

“Alright _boy_. Come over here NOW!” said the heavy voice of Harry’s Uncle Vernon. The last year had been a living nightmare for James and Lily Potter who were forced to watch their only son get mistreated and then outright abused by his Aunt and Uncle at Number 4 Privet Drive, Harry’s new home. Harry had just turned up two years old, something that his parents tried as best as they could to celebrate, wishing him Happy Birthday and the likes to their son. Of course, living at the Dursleys, Harry did not get to celebrate his birthday in anyway.

“Boy! Our Dudley is too old now to share a room with you so you will now be sleeping there!” said Uncle Vernon once Harry left the kitchen and entered the hallway where his uncle was waiting for him.

_“Here? In the hallway? What the hell is this rubbish?”_

Of course, neither James or Lily had noticed the cupboard under the stairs and even if they did, they probably would not have put two and two together. It seamed unimaginable that someone would make a small child sleep in a cupboard. But that was overestimating the Dursley’s hate of their nephew and anything magical. To the horror of Lily and James, Vernon then opened the cupboard’ door which revealed a small bed with a half-destroyed mattress.

_“He must be joking! That man is sick in the head!”_

But of course, he wasn’t and a few minutes later Harry was locked-up in his new “room”. Harry started to cry but was quickly reassured down by the voice of his mother in his head. Harry now understood that he was the only one that could hear his parents. Trying to bring it up to his Aunt and Uncle only earned him a good beating and his parents quickly explained the situation to him so that he wouldn’t suffer from the Dursleys more because of them.

His Aunt and Uncle were not the only ones to bring hell to Harry Potter, his cousin Dudley had a lot of fun with the new member living in the house, having fun multiple times pinching and punching his cousin, something that did not seams to bother Dudley’s parents in the sightless, which only made Harry’s parents more angry and mad at them than before.

James and Lily quickly learned to shut-up and not say anything when they were angry as nobody except Harry would hear him and it would either confuse him or scare him. It did not help that Harry was starting to associate anger with punishments from his Uncle…

As today was Harry’s second birthday, the Potters were wishing hard that Sirius would show up and take Harry out of this hellhole but theirs hopes were starting to dwindle fast. It had been almost a year since Voldemort’s attack on Godric’s Hollow and nobody from the wizarding world, be Sirius, Remus, family friends or even the man who condemned Harry to his new life Albus Dumbledore. Nobody was coming and it was starting to worry them. They just did not know how long Harry would continue to suffer and the fear that it would only be once he would receive his Hogwarts letter at 11 years old that Harry would be free from the Dursleys grew more and more.

* * *

**_March 24 th, 1986_ **

“Up!” banged on the thin door of the cupboard Aunt Petunia. “Get up now! We need you to go cook the bacon in the kitchen! We are going out of town today so you boy will go to Mrs. Figg’s house today.

_“Figg? As in Arabella Figg?”_

_“I guess so, why?”_ answered Harry. They had finally been able to have proper conversations with Harry about a year ago. Obviously, his dialect was still a bit limited, but it was also more developed than anyone from his age, more like a 10 or 11-year-old than a 5-year-old. It was another proof that showed that Harry was forced to grow up way too quickly by the Dursleys as they saw him more as a servant than their nephew. Harry’s parents had recently started to slowly introduce him to the wizarding world and what their lives were before they were killed. Harry could not help but sometime wonder if it was all but a figment of his imagination, but even himself admitted that he was not creative enough to create a world with so much details. Of course, once he started doing accidental magic, something his parents were able to explain to him every time he was confused, he realised that he probably was not imagining things.

 _“Harry”_ said Lily. _“Arabella Figg is someone from our world, a squib!”_

 _“A squib?”_ said Harry. _“Does she have tentacles or something?”_

 _“No Harry”_ laughed James. _“A squib is someone with magical parents who does not have magical power themselves. It’s the opposite of a muggleborn, someone with muggle parents but with magical powers, just like your mother.”_

_“Wow. Then for once I am happy to not go with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia to wherever they are going. Does that mean I will be able to see places from the wizarding world like Diagon Alley?”_

_“I don’t know Harry. It is possible that the main reason she is here is under orders from Albus Dumbledore to watch over you. In this case it is possible she might not be authorised to talk about you about magic. Personally, I would say to only talk about it if she brings it up.”_

* * *

**_October 31 st, 1988_ **

Harry James Potter had now been living at 4 Privet Drive for seven consecutive years. All three Potters agreed that life at the Dursleys was bad. Harry did not know how he would have been able to handle it had it not been able to mind-speak to the spirits of his dead parents. James and Lily were counting down the days until Harry would go to Hogwarts. The last seven years had been somewhat interesting. Although Harry spent most of his time at the Dursleys or school, sometimes he was able to either go to Arabella Figg’s house (who seams to refuse to bring the topic of magic by herself) or was allowed to follow his Aunt and Uncle when leaving him alone in the house or finding someone to watch him was impossible. Theses moments were sometimes a reminder to the Potters that the wizarding world was indeed very real as sometime random people dressed either in muggle or wizard clothes would go shake Harry’s hand and thank him for what he did, something that always confused Harry, always angered his relatives and always made James and Lily laugh out loud. Harry’s parents had yet to bring up the reason why some people seamed to recognise Harry, something they wanted to keep to when he received his Hogwarts letter. All Harry knew was that a wizard attacked their house when Harry was only a year old and that his parents were dead. For all he knew, the reason that he was alive was because he was spared by the killer, and not because he was the original target and managed to survive thanks to the ritual his parents performed and eventual sacrifice.

This date was the anniversary of his parent’s death, but it was also the date James and Lily had agreed when to start training Harry in controlling his magical power with basic wandless magic and more if he could manage it, something they had no doubts about considering the amount of power Harry had.

James and Lily had discovered something interesting in the previous month. They realised that with enough willpower they could drag Harry in a realistic and detailed dream-world which answered the laws of magic. The dream-world looked like a black void, until Harry wished that he was somewhere with more colours like a forest. Just like that, a forest was build around Harry and his parents who quickly realised they could change their location at will and even create one of their own. They realised that they could use this place not only to be able to interact _physically_ (or as close as possible) with Harry but also train him in the ways of wandless magic, something that would be most useful in his later life, and in fighting so that Harry could at least defend himself from the bullies at his muggle school even if he could not confront Dudley directly. Doing so would result in a good beating from Uncle Vernon, something which was still hurting James and Lily to witness as much as it had the first ever time a few weeks after the Dursleys took him in, and so that they were trying to avoid at all cost.

“Wake up Harry.” Said the soft gentle voice of his father. Harry was currently in bed in his room in the big castle surrounded by ton and ton of grass fields, forests and rivers that Harry build in his dream-world. James named it _Potter Castle_ , something that Harry agreed whole-heartedly. His room in the castle was filled with all things related to House Gryffindor stuff from Hogwarts and everything with the exclusion of the walls, ceiling and floor was either red or gold. Both thought that it had been excessive, but James loved it. “Actually, don’t wake up, we want to stay in this dream-world of yours after all.”

“Mum! Dad!” Harry said before hugging them both. Even if it was technically all happening in his mind, being able to hug and be hugged by his parents always gave him big comfort.

“Harry, you remember that we had something planned for today right?” said Lily to her son once he finally let go.

“Yes, you said something about training me so that I would be able to do wandless magic.”

“Indeed, we are. Now something you must know is that wandless magic is not always possible for a witch or wizard. For some people it can come naturally, like for others it can take years and years of training to be able to do simple things such as levitating a feather.”

“Do you think I will be able to do that then? If I don’t, will I still be accepted in Hogwarts?”

“Of course you will still be able to go to Hogwarts Harry!” laughed James up. “When we said that not everyone was able to do it, we meant it. There are barely a few wandless magic users in the world, maybe a hundred at most. Almost everyone is using a wand for all of their magic and Hogwarts teach you how to do magic with a wand.”

“How do you know then that I will be able to do wandless magic?”

“Well…” started his mother. “The only way to find out is to try. You already show great promises as a wizard and you do more accidental magic than everyone else and when we think about it accidental magic is wandless magic just uncontrolled. It also helps that you are more powerful than most children of your age, if not adult wizards in general.”

“Alright then, what do I have to do?”

“First let’s sit down.” Said James when a feather and three wands appeared on the table in one corner of the room. “Usually kids of your age are not allowed to do magic with wands but obviously this law was never enforced considering how The Trace work, but I digress. Today thanks to your dream-world we will actually be able to use wands to do magic!”

“But I thought I was learning how to use magic without it.”

“You are, but first we think it is better if you learn how to do a spell with a wand before so you can better understand how the magic flow trough your whole body. Now take your wand.” said Lily.

“Interesting” said James. “It seams like an exact replica of my own wand!”

“Same here” said Lily thinking. “Can you show me your wand Harry?”

“Sure Mom.” said Harry before giving his mother his wand.

“Interesting. It seams too detailed to be something created by Harry. If he did it would probably look more like a simple stick but I recognise Ollivander’s work there. It is about 11” long and made of Holly wood. For the core I have no idea but unless we try to open it” but before she could finish the wand split in two revealing the core. “Phoenix feather!”

“What do you think it mean then love?”

“I think James that just like for ours, the dream-world gave Harry his own wand, even if he never claimed or bought it from Ollivander’s yet.”

“So I have a 11” long wand made of holly with a phoenix feather?”

“It would appear so, at least here but I would not be too surprised if once you buy your wand it is the same one.”

“I see. Can I learn magic now?” said Harry impatiently.

“Alright son” answered James with a grin. Now the first spell I want you to do is probably one of the simplest spells in existence. Try the incantation _Lumos_.

“ _Lumos_ ”

Harry’s wand tip suddenly lit up with a bright white light. Harry had a big smile on his face once the spell worked.

“Now to extinguish the light you must say _Nox._ ”

“ _Nox_ ” and suddenly the light disappeared.

“Good. Did you feel the magic in you hand, in your arm?”

“Yes, I did but barely.”

“Now try again but try the feel in you. Try as many times as you want.”

After multiple tries, Harry managed to concentrate enough to clearly feel the magic flowing from his fingers to his wand. He felt now that he was able to go trough the next step.

“I got it. I can feel it easily now. Its similar to a tingle in my fingers.”

“That is what we are looking for. Now I want you to but your wand away and concentrate on the feeling. Try to call your magic the same way you did when you used your wand. You should be able to do it without the incantation but if you want you can saw it either out loud or in your mind, it might help you concentrate.”

Once Harry was certain he could feel it properly he tried. Suddenly there was a small but bright ball of white light in the palm of his hand.

“YES” shouted James while Lily congratulated Harry. “MY SON DID IT FIRST TRY!” he said before he started dancing on his feet.

“James!” laughed Lily.

“What? Not only is it ridiculously rare that someone can do wandless magic, our son managed to make a wandless spell on his first try! I don’t even know if it happened in recent times!”

“Can we try another spell please?” said an eager Harry. He wanted to see how much he could do windlessly.

“Sure. We can try another First Year spell, how about the Levitation Charm?”

“Alright” said Harry before taking his wand again. What is the incantation for the-

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK_

“Get up boy! I want you to go make breakfast in 5 minutes” said the voice of Uncle Vernon on the other side of the cupboard door.

 _“Do it yourself you fat pig”_ said Lily’s voice. _“He really has a bad timing.”_

_“Before you go cook that walrus’ food, try the Lighting charm to see if you can do it windlessly in the real world.”_

Harry tried and to his surprise he managed it first try again. The inside of the cupboard was completely lit to the point where Harry could barely see anything.

_“Well, I think that confirm our theory that you can learn magic while you are asleep. That is going to be an interesting tool in the future.”_

And with that, Harry went up to make some breakfast for his much-hated relatives.


	4. Chapter 4

**_June 23 th, 1991_ **

The Potters had now been living here for nearly ten years since Albus Dumbledore dropped them on the doorstep of the Dursleys. Life was as usual for one Harry Potter, or as usual that it can be when your parents are murdered when you are still an infant, when you are abused by your relatives and when the souls and spirits of your dead parents reside inside you which allow you to communicate mentally with them. All and all a normal day for the Potters.

Harry was currently sleeping. Him and his parents had continued training in wandless magic in his dream-world for the last few years. Harry had shown a lot of potential but was still limited in the spells he could use as an untrained young wizard. He could perform simple spells such as _Lumos_ and _Wingardium Leviosa_ but was not able to do it for too long as he was getting fast tired. When he bought his concerns to his parents, they simply said that he was still too young to do it without getting tired but that growing up and practicing magic, wandless or not, would help develop his magical endurance. After all, magic was like a muscle.

Today promised to be another interesting day as it was Harry’s cousin Dudley’s birthday.

_“Well Happy Birthday fatty.”_

_“JAMES!”_ said Lily, shocked. _“Yes, he might be a Dursley and yes he might be a bully but he is still a child and I wont let you insult him.”_

_“Alright sorry love. So, Harry, I am guessing it is going to be another interesting day today…”_

_“You don’t say” answered Harry to his father. “I bet 1 Galleon that Dudley will complain about his gifts.”_

_“I accept that bet even if I know I will lose it. He is a spoiled brat.”_

_“James!”_ warned Lily.

Harry just let his parents bicker. It always made him laugh when his parents did this. It just reminded him than even if all there was left of them was theirs spirits in his mind; they were still human.

“Get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don’t you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy’s birthday.”

Harry groaned while James snickered.

“What did you say?” his aunt napped trough the door.”

“Nothing.”

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. “Comb your hair!” he barked, by way of a morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. It always made his parents laugh since they had long realised that Harry was able to change the length of his hair at will when his Aunt Petunia once cut all of his hair only for it to grow back overnight. James explained that one of his distant ancestors was a metamorphmagus. Harry had only been able to change the length of his hair and so James presumed that Harry only was a partial-metamorphmagus and was only allowed small control over his look. As for the length of his hair, that is simply how he liked it and he did not want it shorter or longer.

Dudley was the next to enter the kitchen. Dudley always treated the place like he was the king of it. Of course, his parents let him to it at will, for them there was nothing wrong with Dudley, something his Uncle James whole-heartily disagreed with.

Dudley went straight to his presents and after a minute or two, Harry heard Dudley complain.

“Thirty-six,” he said, looking up at his mother and father. “That’s two less than last year.”

 _“Damnit”_ said James _. “Why am I still doing bets with you?”_

“Darling, you haven’t counted Auntie Marge’s present, see, it’s here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy.” Said Aunt Petunia.

“All right, thirty-seven then,” said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

“And we’ll buy you another two presents while we’re out today. How’s that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?”

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally, he said slowly, “So I’ll have thirty … thirty …”

“Thirty-nine, sweetums,” said Aunt Petunia.

“Oh.” Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. “All right then.”

 _“Math genius right there.”_ Thought Harry which made his father laugh. Of course, nobody except the Potters could hear the nearly daily mental abuse of the Dursleys.

“Little tyke wants his money’s worth, just like his father. ’Atta boy, Dudley!”

_“Not sure it is a good thing Dursley.”_

At that moment the telephone rang, and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

“Bad news, Vernon,” she said. “Mrs. Figg’s broken her leg. She can’t take him.” She jerked her head in Harry’s direction.

After wondering for a few minutes what to do with Harry, which included every possibility that came to mind excluding taking him with them and some fake crying from Dudley they finally decided on bringing Harry with them.

 _“Well”_ said Lily. _“Look like we are going to a family trip to the zoo.”_

 _“I always wondering how things worked in zoos.”_ Said James. _“I don’t think we have that in the Wizarding World. Of course, we have reserves, but visitors are limited, it is not the main business of a reserve to give a tour.”_

_“I guess we will find out today then. I am happy we can go together Mum and Dad.”_

_“Me too son, although we will still be stuck with them.”_

Half an hour later, once Dudley’s friend Piers arrived, the group went to the zoo. It was the first time James and Harry visited the zoo and Lily’s last time had been decades ago. Once they exited the car Uncle Vernon took Harry aside and said, “I’m warning you, I’m warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you’ll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas.”

 _“Can your face even get more purple than that!”_ said James. Harry smirked, something that did not go unnoticed by his Uncle. “What you are laughing at boy?”

“Nothing Uncle Vernon. And I was not going to do anything, honestly…”

But Uncle Vernon did not believe him. No one excluding his parents ever did.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn’t bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn’t blond. James and Lily often gave their commentary on the different type of animals they found while exploring the zoo to the entertainment of Harry. If he ignored the Dursleys, Harry really felt like he went to the zoo with his own parents. Harry had the best morning he’d had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn’t fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn’t have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

The Potters had stopped being surprised about things Harry could do a long time ago. But the surprise came back in full swing when the group entered the reptile house. They had managed to get themselves in front of a big poisonous cobra and of course Dudley still whined.

“Make it move!” he said. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn’t budge. “Do it again!” Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. “This is boring.” Dudley moaned. While he shuttled away, the Potters continued to observe the snake.

 _“How can a snake be boring?”_ said Lily.

 _“As long as they aren’t Slytherins I agree with you!”_ replied James.

_“Not everything is about Hogwarts Houses you know.”_

Harry did not know what pushed him to do this, but he decided to talk to the snake.

 _“It must be pretty boring to live here all alone with only visitors to stare at you all day no?”_ Harry did not hear the gasp of his parents while he talked.

 _“I get that all the time”_ replied the snake.

Harry could not believe it, the snake actually replied to him!

 _“Holy shit”_ he heard James say.

_“What is it?”_

_“Harry”_ said his mother. _“You just spoke parseltongue! You can speak to snakes!”_

_“Well I know, I just did it.”_

_“You don’t understand Harry”_ interceded his father. _“Parseltongue is a rare ability. Before we died there was only one Parselmouth in the whole of the country!”_

_“Who was it?”_

His parents hesitated and he did not understand why.

 _“Harry, the only other Parselmouth in the country is the wizard that killed us all those years ago.”_ Harry did not hear himself gasp.

That night, Harry took longer than usual to get asleep. He knew he was finally going to be told what happened all those years ago, how he ended up here with the spirits of his parents and he was understandably stressed. When sleep finally came he found himself back into his room in _Potter Castle_ , his parents at his bedside.

“I think for that one you might prefer to sit.”

And so, they told him everything. How while they were at Hogwarts an evil Dark Wizard going by the name of Voldemort (But who was really named _Tom Marvolo Riddle_ as Lily discovered in the last year before her death.), how he came to power and terrorised the British Wizarding World and the war that followed, Harry’s parents and the Order of the Phoenix’ actions against Voldemort, how a prophecy was made which pretty much meant that Harry had to be the one to kill Voldemort, how Voldemort discovered the first part of the prophecy and went after the Potters, how they had managed to find a ritual that would save Harry’s life but would require the sacrifice of one of his parents, and how once they were killed their souls linked together in Harry’s body, enabling the protection which make Voldemort’s Killing Curse rebound against him and destroyed him, leaving nothing but a scar on his forehead and how he was most probably famous in the Wizarding World as the one who defeated Lord Voldemort and finally how he ended up at the Dursleys and why. At that moment, Harry knew that he would have no choice to fight and he would try to be as ready as possible. Now all he had to do was wait for his Hogwarts letter.

* * *

**_July 24 th, 1991_ **

Harry did not have to wait long to receive his Hogwarts letter as the following morning, when Harry was sent to retrieve the mail, he instantly spotted one letter that was different than anything else. It was made from parchment and not paper.

 _“There it is!”_ said James voice in his head. _“Hide this letter and let’s open it once you are out of the way of the bloody Dursleys.”_

 _“WAIT!”_ shouted Lily, instantly making Harry stop walking in the middle of the kitchen which only managed to get himself some funny looks like he was mental or something.

“Give me the letters boy!” barked Uncle Vernon’s voice. Harry gave him the stack, being careful not to show the one from Hogwarts. That didn’t work as Dudley saw it and snatched it out of him. “Dad!” said Dudley suddenly. “Dad, Harry’s got something!”

Dudley gave the letter to his father before Harry had been able to take it back. “That’s mine!” said Harry, looking at the address and then the Hogwarts seal at the back. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn’t stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.

“P-P-Petunia!” he gasped.

Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.

_“Bloody hell”_

“Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!”

They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room.

“I want to read that letter,” he said loudly.

“I want to read it,” said Harry furiously, “as it’s mine.”

“Get out, both of you,” croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.

Harry didn’t move.

“I WANT MY LETTER!” he shouted.

“Let me see it!” demanded Dudley.

“OUT!” roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them.

Dudley promptly threw his ear at the keyhole, trying to listen to what his parents were talking about, but Harry didn’t. He already knew what the letter said but of course he was not going to say that to his relatives.

 _“Shit.”_ Came the voice of James Potter. _“If Harry does not answer that letter, he wont be able to go to Hogwarts!”_

 _“What!”_ Harry shouted in his mind. _“I want to go to Hogwarts!”_

_“Guys don’t worry about the letter.”_

_“How could we not worry Lily?”_

_“Simple James. Do you really think Albus Dumbledore won’t do anything if Harry does not answer that letter? I expect that they will try to make themselves more and more present until they are forced to answer it. Either that or they will send someone here. Either way I expect it to be highly entertaining.”_

James barked out loud. _“You are simply brilliant! No wonder I fell in love with you at first sight!”_

_“It is a shame it took me so long to understand my feelings toward you but then again you didn’t help by being a constant prat for six years.”_

_“Yes yes I know when I finally grew up I understood how much of a jerk I was. It’s a good thing I did not loose all my chances toward you!”_

_“Either way”_ said Harry before his parents became more and more distracted with each other. _“I expect the following days to be interesting.”_

At that moment the door of the kitchen opened, revealing both Harry and Dudley standing in the hallway.

“Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking … you’re really getting a bit big for it … we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley’s second bedroom.”

“Why?” said Harry.

“Don’t ask questions!” snapped his uncle. “Take this stuff upstairs, now.”

_“It seams like all it takes to make them act slightly more human toward you son is to send them a wizarding letter. Wow if I knew.”_

_“James it is probably because the letter was addressed to_ The Cupboard Under the Stairs.”

 _“Wait hold on”_ said Harry. _“If they know my bedroom was the cupboard, why did they never come here! Shouldn’t that had given them red flags?”_

 _“Bloody hell he is right!”_ said James. _“Why did they never come check on Harry if they knew he was sleeping in a fucking cupboard?”_

_“That is something we will have to ask once Harry get to Hogwarts dear.”_

_“I hope they will.”_

As Lily predicted, the next few days were highly interesting. When the mail arrived the following morning, the Dursleys received another letter addressed to _The Smallest Bedroom_. The following morning after that, three different letters arrived. James recognized a good prank in the making and knew Hogwarts would make themselves very persistent. The day after, on Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry from Hogwarts. Since Uncle Vernon had nailed up the mail slot the previous day, they had to be pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few even forced trough the small window in the downstairs bathroom. On Saturday it is when things really began to pick up speed and when the Potters really started having fun. Twenty-four letters addressed to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs the Dursleys received from their milkman. It was James’ favourite so far and was surprised how he himself never thought about something like that back in his pranking days.

On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.

“No post on Sundays,” he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, “no damn letters today —”

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry laughed out loud. James remembered a similar prank he had done in the House Slytherin common room and realised how poetic it sounded that the Hogwarts staff took inspiration from one of their own pranks to make sure his son received his Hogwarts letter.

“Out! OUT!”

Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.

“That does it,” said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. “I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We’re going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!”

 _“He is finally losing it!”_ barked James in between laugher.

 _“That is a new record of the most purple face in the world!”_ said Lily barely keeping it together.

 _“What do you think will happen once we are out of the house.”_ Wondered Harry once he finally calmed down.

_“One thing for sure is that I can’t wait for it!”_

Vernon Dursley was clearly losing it. They drove and drove all day, sometime muttering something like “Shake ’em off … shake ’em off,” which the Potters knew would be impossible against a bunch of wizards. They finally arrived at a gloomy-looking hotel in the outskirts of a big city and stayed there for the night.

The following morning, the owner of the hotel came over their table while they were eating breakfast and said “Excuse me, but is this one of you Mr. H. Potter? I got about a hundred (James lost it there) of theses are the front desk (and then followed by Lily.) Harry tried his hardest not to follow his parents when Uncle Vernon’s face became more and more purple.

The following day, they travelled more and more until they arrived at a miserable little shack in on a rock in the middle of the water. Even James could not believe the state of a place and that came from someone who spent many nights in the Shrieking Shack with a werewolf. The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn’t sleep so he entertained himself with his parents.

 _“What do you think they will do tomorrow?”_ wondered Lily. _“I hope it is something big for Harry’s birthday.”_

 _“Tomorrow is my birthday? I completely forgot about it.”_ He then glanced at Dudley’s watch and saw that there was less than a minute left before he turned eleven.

 _“Indeed Prongslet, it will be your birthday. Every year it saddens your mother and I that we can’t throw a_ — _“_

**BOOM**

The whole shack shivered, and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

 **BOOM**. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.

“Where’s the cannon?” he said stupidly.

There was a crash behind them, and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands.

“Who’s there?” he shouted. “I warn you; I’m armed!”

There was a pause. Then…

**SMASH!**

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

_“Harry, meet Rubeus Hagrid.”_

The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.

“Couldn’t make us a cup o’ tea, could yeh? It’s not been an easy journey. …”

He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.

“Budge up, yeh great lump,” said the stranger.

Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.

“An’ here’s Harry!” said the giant.

Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

“Las’ time I saw you, you was only a baby,” said the giant. “Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh’ve got yer mom’s eyes.”

 _“Aww they still think that about our baby even when he is older.”_ Said the emotional voice of Lily Potter.

Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise. “I demand that you leave at once, sir!” he said. “You are breaking and entering!”

“Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,” said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon’s hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.

Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.

“Anyway — Harry,” said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, “a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.”

From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.

Harry looked up at the giant. “Thank you” he said. He could not find the words to express how grateful he was, and either were James and Lily who were so happy that someone they knew finally visited their son on his birthday and gave him his own cake.

“I haven’t introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.”

He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry’s whole arm.

“What about that tea then, eh?” he said, rubbing his hands together. “I’d not say no ter summat stronger if yeh’ve got it, mind.” His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn’t see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he’d sunk into a hot bath.

The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, “Don’t touch anything he gives you, Dudley.”

The giant chuckled darkly.

“Yer great puddin’ of a son don’ need fattenin’ anymore, Dursley, don’ worry.”

He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn’t take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, “Thank you Mr. Hagrid but I still don’t really know what you came here from.”

“Call me Hagrid,” he said, “everyone does. An’ like I told yeh, I’m Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts yeh’ll know all about Hogwarts, o’ course.”

“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Of course I know!”

“WHAT!” shouted both Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, to the amusement of the Potters. “How could you know? We never told you any of this rubbish!”

“WHAT?” Hagrid thundered. “Now wait jus’ one second!”

He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.

“Do you mean ter tell me,” he growled at the Dursleys, “that this boy, this boy! knows nothin’ abou’ about ANYTHING?”

“Hagrid?” hesitated Harry. “I know actually about everything. The attack on my parents, Voldemort, the Order of the Phoenix…”

“Ol’ on. How do y’u know about this stuff?”

Harry did not know what to say, realising he revealed more than he should.

_“Just say that it is complicated but that in short you know.”_

“Well…” repeated Harry. “It is a complicated story, but I just know.”

“Well that savin’ me some time.” Responded Hagrid. “Her’ is your Hogwarts letter.”

Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_Deputy Headmistress_

“Where was I?” said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.

“He’s not going,” he said.

Hagrid grunted.

“If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won’t stop him,” growled Hagrid. “Stop Lily an’ James Potter’s son goin’ ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name’s been down ever since he was born. He’s off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won’t know himself. He’ll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an’ he’ll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled—”

“I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!” yelled Uncle Vernon.

But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, “NEVER —” he thundered, “— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!”

He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig’s tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.

Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.

“Shouldn’ta lost me temper,” he said ruefully, “but it didn’t work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn’t much left ter do.”

_“Oh, if only you knew. I always wondered about that umbrella of his. He must have a wand inside or something.”_

He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.

“Be grateful if yeh didn’t mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts,” he said. “I’m — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin’. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an’ get yer letters to yeh an’ stuff — one o’ the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job —”

“Why aren’t you supposed to do magic?” asked Harry.

“Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an’ everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore.”

“Why were you expelled?”

“It’s gettin’ late and we’ve got lots ter do tomorrow,” said Hagrid loudly. “Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an’ that.”

He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.

“You can kip under that,” he said. “Don’ mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o’ dormice in one o’ the pockets.”

_“That explains it then, he must have his old snapped wand in it. It would not be legal since he got expelled hence why he want us to keep it secret.”_

_“Do you know why he got expelled Lily?”_

_“There was rumors back in the days, but I am not sure if they are true. I think it was because of something and a big monster.”_

_“Knowing Hagrid, I would not be surprised. He always said that monsters were just misunderstood.”_

_“Anyway, tomorrow is a big day so off to sleep you go Harry.”_

_“Yes Mum. Goodnight.”_

_“’Night Harry.”_ James and Lily concluded.


	5. Chapter 5

**_July 31 st, 1991_ **

Harry woke up early the next morning. He had just spent the night in his dream-world talking to his parents about what to expect from Diagon Alley. Before long, he and Hagrid were on their way to Diagon Alley first by taking the small boat the Dursleys used to get to the shack to cross the sea. Lily wondered how they would be able to come back without it but in honesty she didn’t really care. Then they took the Underground to the amusement of James and a few other passengers when they saw the half-giant Hagrid trying to fit in. Before long, they were in London facing a tiny, grubby-looking pub.

“This is it,” said Hagrid, coming to a halt, “the Leaky Cauldron. It’s a famous place.”

If Hagrid hadn’t pointed it out, Harry wouldn’t have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn’t glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.

Harry had forgotten that he was famous right until the barman Tom said “Good Lord, is this, can this be…?”

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent. “Bless my soul,” whispered the old bartender, “Harry Potter … what an honor.” He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes. “Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back.”

Harry became highly uncomfortable. He never liked when people stared at him and now he had a pub full of people doing so. One by one, the patrons of the Leaky Cauldron came and shook Harry’s hand. It did not stop until Hagrid finally managed to drag Harry out of the pub and into the small alleyway behind it.

“Three up … two across …” he muttered. “Right, stand back, Harry.” He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered, it wriggled, in the middle, a small hole appeared, it grew wider and wider and a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

“Welcome,” said Hagrid, “to Diagon Alley.”

Harry was happy, but surprisingly not as much as his parents who were full of joy of being back in the Wizarding World.

 _“This place did not change one bit!”_ James said. _“I love it!”_

_“I missed Diagon Alley so much. Glad we are finally back. Now Harry first you will need to go to Gringotts, it is the big white building at the end of the alley.”_

_“I see it.”_ He then said out loud “We are going to Gringotts first, right?”

“Of course you are. That’s where your money is! Don’t you think your parents didn’t leave anything behind for you?” Of course, Harry already knew as his parents had told him time and time again that the Potter Family was rich thanks to his grandfather who quadrupled the Potter Family wealth when he invented the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion and then sold the company at a vast profit.

Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, “Dragon liver, sixteen Sickles an ounce, they’re mad.”

A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium — Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry’s age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. “Look,” Harry heard one of them say, “the new Nimbus Two Thousand — fastest ever —” There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels’ eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon. …

“Gringotts,” said Hagrid.

They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Harry quickly entered the bank and with the help of Hagrid, they found a free goblin to talk to. “Morning,” said Hagrid. “We’ve come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter’s safe.”

“You have his key, sir?”

“Got it here somewhere,” said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblins book of numbers. While Hagrid was searching for the key, James had an idea. _“Ask him some information about your vaults. I know you have more than one. By the way now that I think of it how did Albus Dumbledore manage to get the key to your school vault?”_

“Excuse me sir, I was wondering if I could get information about the vaults I own here.”

The goblin gave a smile at Harry’s politeness. “Of course, Mr. Potter. You currently own three different vaults. The first one is your trust vault created by your parents so that you would be able to pay for your school supplies among other things before you get access to the remaining two vaults. Your second vault is the vault formerly owned by one Lily Evans-Potter. Your mother invested money in some business ventures before she passed away. Some have been profitable, and others haven’t. There is quite a lot of money in it but far from the amount in your third vault the Potter Family Vault which contain the whole fortune the Potters acquired throughout History. You will be able to withdraw money from both the Evans and Potter vaults when you turn of age at seventeen.”

“Thank you. Hagrid? Why does the Headmaster have the key for my vault?”

“Because he is your magical guardian Harry, he holds the key until you were ready to go to Hogwarts!”

 _“Wait hold on.”_ Said James. _“Shouldn’t Sirius be his guardian since he is his godfather?”_

“Hagrid? Shouldn’t my godfather Sirius Black be my guardian?”

Hagrid’s face turned completely white very fast. “Considering what he did it is probably better that he is not.”

“What do you mean?” Now not only James was confused, but Lily and Harry as well.

The goblin answered the Potters’ question. “When you were younger, your family went into hiding behind what is called a _Fidelius Charm_. Your godfather Mr. Sirius Black was your Secret-Keeper-“

“No he wasn’t.” said Harry before the goblin could continue.

 _“What the hell, how do they still think that Sirius is the Secret-Keeper? Our Will should have put that to rest, we clearly stated in it that Peter was the Secret-Keeper.”_ Said James.

“What do you mean Mr. Potter?”

“My father’s _friend-_ ” he said the last word with a venomous tone. “-Peter Pettigrew was my parent’s Secret-Keeper.”

“Are you sure?” said Hagrid.

“Yes, it should be written in my parent’s Will and testament. I don’t know why people still think he held the secret.”

“Let me see.” Said the goblin before leaving. After a few minutes, he came back with a rolled-up parchment and said “It seams that James and Lily Potter’s Will was sealed by the Chief Warlock of the Wizenmagot Albus Dumbledore before it was opened. As your parent’s heir, you have the power to unseal it. Do you want to unseal it?”

“Yes please.”

 _“What is Dumbledore playing at? I swear everyday since our deaths I find more and more reasons to be angry at him.”_ Said James.

“There you go.” The goblin said before giving the Will to Harry.

_LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT_

_OF_

_JAMES POTTER AND LILY J. POTTER (née EVANS)_

  1. _To our son, Harry James Potter, we leave the entirety of our estate, excluding anything listed below, and all our vaults at Gringotts. He shall only have access to his trust vault until the age of majority (17) until which he shall gain access to the Potter Family Vault and Lily Evans’ Vault._
  2. _To Sirius Orion Black, we leave co-guardianship of our son and one Galleon as per his request and thank him for his friendship after all this time._



_III. To Alice Longbottom, we leave co-guardianship of our son and 500,000 Galleons and thank him for her friendship after all this time._

  1. _To Remus John Lupin, Frank Longbottom, we leave 100,000 Galleons each and thank them for his friendship after all this time._
  2. _To Peter Pettigrew, our Secret-Keeper, we leave 100,000 Galleons and thank him for his friendship after all this time._



  1. _As a matter of Public Record:_
  2. _Peter Pettigrew was our Secret-Keeper. If our secret is leaked, we suggest he be investigated._
  3. _Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES is Harry to be placed with my sister, Petunia Dursley (née Evans)._



“There you go it is written right there.” He said while pointing at Argument V. Point 1.

“It seams that you were right Mr. Potter. Sirius Black did not betray your parents but there is still the question about his other crimes.”

“Other crimes?”

“Well Harry…” said Hagrid. “Sirius Black killed Peter Pettigrew and twelves Muggles when he blew up the street where he and Peter were when they confronted each other. He was sent to Askaban because of that.”

 _“Padfoot would never do that!”_ said James. Lily and Harry were too shocked to know what to say.

“Oh.”

“Do you want to access your vault Mr. Potter?”

“Sorry, yes sir.”

“An’ I’ve also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore,” said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. “It’s about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen.”

The goblin read the letter carefully.

“Very well,” he said, handing it back to Hagrid, “I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!” Once Harry stored his copy of the Will in his pockets, he and Hagrid followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall. Harry was silent for the whole cart ride as he was listening to his parents arguing whether or not Sirius Black really did what he was accused for.

 _“Well we know Sirius could not betray us to Voldemort since he was not the Secret-Keeper. He also always hated the Dark Arts and Death Eaters with passion so I really don’t think he would be able to do something like that.”_ Said James.

_“Maybe but then again remember that he had just lost us. I don’t really think Sirius is capable of doing that but then again maybe something snapped inside him. I would not be surprised if he blamed himself for our deaths since he was the one to come with the idea of making Peter our Secret-Keeper and maybe he was so consumed in revenge that he did not realise what he was doing until it was too late.”_

_“Yes but remember that Peter was working for Voldemort. Remember the night we died when we saw him come into the house and mutter something about “Sirius” and “’Master”. He even took Voldemort’s wand for some reason. I think Peter might have caused the explosion that killed thoses Muggles. I just wished we knew for sure.”_

_“Only time will tell.”_

Harry must have missed something because once the cart stopped Hagrid’s face looked very green. Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling. Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts. “All yours,” smiled Hagrid.

_“And that is nothing compared to the Potter Vault son.”_

Once Harry had filled his money bag with Galleons, Sickles and Knuts, the group left to the following vault. They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. By the sounds James was making, he seams to had momentarily forgotten Sirius’ situation and was having fun like a small child in a rollercoaster. They finally arrived at the other vault.

Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.

“Stand back,” said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.

“If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they’d be sucked through the door and trapped in there,” said Griphook.

“How often do you check to see if anyone’s inside?” Harry asked.

“About once every ten years,” said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.

The Potters were wondering what could possibly be in this top security vault but were disappointed when all they saw was a grubby little package wrapped up in a brown paper lying on the floor.

“Huh Hagrid what is that?”

“Can’t tell yeh that,” said Hagrid mysteriously. “Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore’s trusted me. More’n my job’s worth ter tell yeh that.”

One cart ride later and they were back at the surface. With the help of Hagrid (and secretly his parents), Harry managed to quickly gather everything he would need for the school year. James was tempted to make Harry buy himself a broom but Lily refused saying that first years were not allowed and anyway did not want to see her only son fly a broom without learning how to first. After going to Madam Malkin and meeting a blond haired boy named Draco Malfoy, which upon learning his name both of his parents grumbled, then bought the school books at a shop named Flourish and Blotts, then went to the cauldron shop and the Apothecary so that Harry would be well equipped for his Potion classes. All that was left afterward was to buy a wand.

“Just yer wand left — oh yeah, an’ I still haven’t got yeh a birthday present.”

Harry felt himself go red.

“You don’t have to —”

“I know I don’t have to. Tell yeh what, I’ll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh’d be laughed at — an’ I don’ like cats, they make me sneeze. I’ll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they’re dead useful, carry yer mail an’ everythin’.”

Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn’t stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell, one of Harry’s future teachers that they had met while at the Leaky Cauldron.

“Don’ mention it,” said Hagrid gruffly. “Don’ expect you’ve had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now — only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand.”

The tension was starting to rise in Harry’s mind. The Potters were waiting anxiously to see if their theory on Harry’s wand in his dream-world was correct. If it was, Harry already knew what his wand would be. “Good afternoon,” said a soft voice once they entered the shop. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

“Hello,” said Harry awkwardly.

“Ah yes,” said the man. “Yes, yes. I thought I’d be seeing you soon. Harry Potter.” It wasn’t a question. “You have your mother’s eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work.” Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. “Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it — it’s really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course.” Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.

_“That man always creeped me out. I wonder how he always remember what wand people bought in his store even decades later.”_

“And that’s where …”

Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead with a long, white finger.

“I’m sorry to say I sold the wand that did it,” he said softly. “Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands … well, if I’d known what that wand was going out into the world to do. …”

He shook his head and then, to Harry’s relief, spotted Hagrid.

“Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again. … Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn’t it?”

“It was, sir, yes,” said Hagrid.

“Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?” said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.

“Er — yes, they did, yes,” said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. “I’ve still got the pieces, though,” he added brightly.

“But you don’t use them?” said Mr. Ollivander sharply.

“Oh, no, sir,” said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.

“Hmmm,” said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. “Well, now — Mr. Potter. Let me see.” He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. “Which is your wand arm?”

“Er — well, I’m right-handed,” said Harry.

“Hold out your arm. That’s it.” He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, “Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard’s wand.”

Before Mr. Ollivander started testing wands, Harry tested his mother’s theory. “Huh, do you have any 11” holly and phoenix feather wands?” said Harry.

Ollivander looked shocked for a moment before he quickly regained his composure and said “Indeed Mr. Potter, I do have this wand. Let me fetch it for you.” Ollivanders came back with a small box and opened it. Harry instantly recognized the wand and took it. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, “Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well … how curious … how very curious …”

He put Harry’s wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, “Curious … curious …”

“Sorry,” said Harry, “but what’s curious?”

Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare. “I remember every wand I’ve ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar.”

Harry swallowed while his parents gasped.

“Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember. … I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter. … After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great.”

Harry shivered. He wasn’t sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

As Harry and Hagrid slowly made their way back to Number 4 Privet Drive, the Potters were left with a lot to think about.

 _“Well anything I expected from today’s trip did not come close to what we learned.”_ His mother said.

 _“Indeed”_ added his father. _“We learned that Padfoot was sent to Askaban, which explain why he never came back for Harry, and we learned that Harry’s wand is the brother wand to Lord Voldemort’s. I really want to know the precise reason why Sirius was arrested and what happened that night. That is something you will have to ask for me son when you get to Hogwarts and meet Dumbledore.”_

 _“So now we wait until September 1 st then.”_ Said Harry.

_“Yes, now we wait.”_


	6. Chapter 6

**_September 1 st 1991_ **

It was finally the start of Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, a day which James and Lily had been counting down to ever since Harry landed at the Dursleys about ten years prior.

Harry was currently waiting impatiently in his small room which he spent almost all of his time in. Truthfully, Harry barely saw the Dursleys as they seamed to try their hardest to act as if Harry did not exist. Harry did not mind much about his relative’s attitude but it also made the last month at Privet Drive pretty boring since all he could do was read his school books. Harry spent the month of August with only his new owl, Hedwig, and his parents.

On the last day of August he thought he’d better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King’s Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.

“Er — Uncle Vernon?”

Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.

“Er — I need to be at King’s Cross tomorrow to — to go to Hogwarts.”

Uncle Vernon grunted again.

“Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?”

Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes.

“Thank you.”

He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.

“Funny way to get to a wizards’ school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?”

“Magic carpets are illegal in the United Kingdom Uncle Vernon.”

That was not the answer Uncle Vernon was expecting and you could see it took a lot of willpower to ignore it.

“Where is this school, anyway?”

“Scotland”

He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.

“I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o’clock,” he read.

His aunt and uncle stared.

“Platform what?”

“Nine and three-quarters.”

“Don’t talk rubbish,” said Uncle Vernon. “There is no platform nine and three-quarters.”

“Yes there is. You can only enter it via a portal hidden between platform nine and ten. I mean Aunt Petunia you must know that I am sure you must have been there at least once when my mother was going to Hogwarts.”

Aunt Petunia simply ignored him.

“Barking,” said Uncle Vernon, “howling mad, the lot of them. You’ll see. You just wait. All right, we’ll take you to King’s Cross. We’re going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn’t bother.”

“Why are you going to London?” Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.

“Taking Dudley to the hospital,” growled Uncle Vernon. “Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings.”

While waiting to go to King’s Cross Station, Harry checked and checked again his Hogwarts list to make sure he had everything he needed. He originally shut Hedwig safely in her cage before Lily reminded him that Hedwig would probably prefer flying to Hogwarts than taking the train in her cage. After setting Hedwig off and wishing her a safe flight he took to pacing his room. Two hours later, Harry’s trunk had been loaded into the Dursley’s car and they set off.

They reached King’s Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry’s trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.

“Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine — platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don’t seem to have built it yet, do they?”

“Like I told you yesterday you access it with a portal.” Before he ran into the barrier between both platforms. He thought for a moment that he was crazy to run toward a wall but he did not stop and the crash that he was half-expecting never came. When he opened his eyes, he was welcome to a beautiful sight. The scarlet steam engine of the Hogwarts Express was waiting next to a platform packed with people. Harry looked behind and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been. He had done it.

Before he could get out of the way someone with red hair crashed into his back.

“Sorry!” said both Harry and the red-haired boy. “Sorry it is my fault I should not have stayed in the way.” He said before quickly moving before someone else crashed into them.

“It is alright.” The boy said. “Muggleborn?” he asked.

“No? Why?”

“Usually Muggleborns are the ones that get shocked when they see the Express for the first time and I guessed that you were admiring it.”

“Yes I was.”

“Anyway my name is Percy.”

“Harry.”

“Well see you later Harry and I hope you will end up in Gryffindor!” he said before he left.

Before he could say something, another red-haired boy crossed the barrier, quickly followed by an exact copy of his. Harry then saw another red-haired boy, this time someone of his age before a plump woman and a small girl, both with red hair again, entered the platform. When he saw the girl, which he guessed was Percy’s younger sister, something Harry never felt awoke in him. He started feeling some pull toward her and since he did not understand what it meant he decided to go talk to her.

“Hi.” Harry said shyly

The girl was surprised that someone came to talk to her and upon seeing Harry, something also awoke inside of her and she also started feeling some pull toward him.

“Hi.” She said while blushing a bit.

“Do you go to Hogwarts this year?” Harry asked.

The girl looked crestfallen. “No.” she said which sadden Harry. Harry was now confused as well as he did not understand why he felt that way about a complete stranger.

“Oh.” He said. “What is your name?” he asked.

“Ginny. Ginny Weasley.”

“I am Harry. Harry Potter.”

Ginny’s eyes became wide open. “You are Harry Potter?”

“Yes but please don’t say it out loud Ginny, I don’t like when people stare at me.”

“Sorry.” She said quickly before blushing bright red.

“Don’t worry it is alright. I am still not used to the fact that I am famous. Hey, I am wondering, do you want to send each other letters? I have an owl but I have nobody to talk to. I could also talk to you have how Hogwarts is and the classes and everything and if you want you can talk to me about anything you want.”

“Sure I don’t mind.” She said smiling. “Just send your letters to _The Burrow_ and I will receive them.”

“Thanks” said a happy Harry. “I better get onto the train before it leave without me, I don’t want to miss my first year at Hogwarts.”

“Oh ok, goodbye then Harry.” She said a bit sad.

“Goodbye Ginny, I will write to you after my first day at Hogwarts!”

Once Harry got into the train and found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.

“Want a hand?” It was one of the twins he’d saw come trough the barrier.

“Yes, please,” Harry panted.

“Oy, Fred! C’mere and help!”

With the twins’ help, Harry’s trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.

“Thanks,” said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.

“What’s that?” said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry’s lightning scar.

“Blimey,” said the other twin. “Are you — ?”

“He is,” said the first twin. “Aren’t you?” he added to Harry.

“What?” said Harry.

“Harry Potter,” chorused the twins.

“Oh, him,” said Harry. “I mean, yes, I am.”

The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train’s open door.

“Fred? George? Are you there?”

“Coming, Mom.”

With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.

Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch Ginny and rest of the the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.

 _“Well that was interesting.”_ Said James with a smug voice. Harry had totally forgot that his parents saw and heard everything he did and he felt himself blushing. _“Could our son have fallen in love with a red-head at first sight just like I did?”_

 _“I think he did James. What is weird is the pull Harry feel toward Ginny. I am pretty sure it is not normal.”_ Said Lily.

_“Well it is just another weird thing in the life of Harry James Potter!”_

_“Dad!”_

At that moment, Harry heard the Weasleys talking about him.

“Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?”

Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn’t see him looking.

“You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?”

“Who?”

“Harry Potter!”

“How do you know?”

“Asked him. Saw his scar. It’s really there — like lightning.”

“Poor dear — no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform.”

“Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?”

Their mother suddenly became very stern.

“I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don’t you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school.”

“I am surprised little Gin-Gin here did not ask to talk to him here.” Said George.

“That’s because I already met and talk to him.” Said Ginny voice.

“And you are still here?” said Fred gobsmacked. “You didn’t run away blushing or anything?”

“Fred! George! Stop making fun of your sister and hurry up!”

their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.

“Don’t, Ginny, we’ll send you loads of owls.”

“We’ll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat.”

“George!”

“Only joking, Mom.”

The train began to move. Harry saw Ginny’s mother waving and Ginny, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved. Harry opened the window of his compartment and stuck half of his body out and waved at Ginny. Ginny saw him and gave him a big smile before the train left the station and she disappeared out of view.

 _“Yeah”_ said James. _“He is definitely in love.”_

_“Shut it Dad.”_

Before James could say anything else, the door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.

“Anyone sitting there?” he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. “Everywhere else is full.”

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn’t looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.

“Hey, Ron.”

The twins were back.

“Listen, we’re going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan’s got a giant tarantula down there.”

“Right,” mumbled Ron.

“Harry,” said the other twin, “did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then.”

“Bye,” said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

“Are you really Harry Potter?” Ron blurted out.

Harry nodded.

“Oh — well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George’s jokes,” said Ron. “And have you really got — you know …”

“That bloody scar?” said Harry while pointing at his forehead.

 _“Language Harry.”_ Said Lily’s voice.

_“Sorry Mum.”_

“So that’s where You-Know-Who — ?”

“…tried to kill me but failed yes it Is where it happened.”

Ron realised that Harry did not like talking about the night his family was attacked by Voldemort and dropped the subject.

 _“I wonder how everyone know Harry has that scar. From what I remember, Harry went straight from Godric’s Hollow to Privet Drive and the only wizards who could have seen his scar are Sirius, Hagrid and Dumbledore, unless someone else was there when Dumbledore put Harry on the Dursley’s doorstep.”_ Said Lily.

After a few minutes of silence, Harry asked Ron “Are all your family wizards?”.

“Er — yes, I think so,” said Ron. “I think Mom’s got a second cousin who’s an accountant, but we never talk about him.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you guys never talking about him?”

“Well he does not have any magical powers, so we just don’t talk about him.”

“So, you mean that just because someone in your family was born without magic you guys are ignoring him?”

“I guess, it has just always been the case in our family as far as I can remember.”

“Oh.”

After another few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Ron said “I heard you went to live with Muggles, what are they like?”

“Horrible — well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I’d had three wizard brothers.”

“Five,” said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. “I’m the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I’ve got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy’s a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they’re really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it’s no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I’ve got Bill’s old robes, Charlie’s old wand, and Percy’s old rat.”

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.

 _“WORMTAIL!”_ shouted James. _“I RECOGNIZE HIM IT IS THAT BASTARD!”_

Harry turned very white at the sight of the rat and did not know what to say or do. Ron did not notice it has he continued.

“His name’s Scabbers and he’s useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn’t aff— I mean, I got Scabbers instead.”

Ron’s ears went pink. He seemed to think he’d said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.

_“Scabbers my ass. That is bloody Peter Pettigrew! What are we going to do with him we can’t just let him stay around our son while he goes to Hogwarts!”_

_“I know James, we will just have to find a convincing way to unmask an unregistered Animagus.”_

_“Wait I know!”_ said James. _“Remember our first class with Minerva? She always introduce herself in First Year in her Animagus form. Harry could just ask her if there is any way to detect if an animal is an Animagus and use the Animagus-detecting-spell that Minerva will teach him as a reason to tell her and Albus that Ron’s rat is really an Animagus. Now all he would have to do is wait for one of them to force Wormtail back into his human form and interrogate him and Peter will go to Askaban and Sirius will be free!”_

_“That is a good idea but we can’t do anything until Minerva’s first class so for now Harry just ignore him for now.”_

_“Alright Mum I will do that.”_

Harry continued his conversation while trying his best not to look at Wormtail. Harry talked about how he never had anything of his own before he discovered he was a wizard a month ago in order to make Ron realise that not having a lot of money is not really a bad thing. Ron was shocked that Harry lived in the Muggle World for the last ten years, thinking that he had been living in the Wizarding World for all of his life. While they had been talking, the cart lady arrived at their compartment offering all types of candy and sweets from the Wizarding World. Wanting to test them all, Harry bought about three or four items of each time, something Lily was not very happy with. While eating Chocolate Frogs with Ron, Harry got Dumbledore’s card and decided to keep it. A while after, there was a knock on the compartment door and the door was slid open and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful.

 _“Hey I recognize him!”_ said Lily _“He look a lot like Alice Longbottom, by best friend at Hogwarts. I think that is her and Frank’s son Neville.”_

_“I think you are right Lils. He does also look like Frank but not as much as Alice.”_

_“Well Harry if we are right this boy is your godbrother as his mother Alice was your godmother and I am his godmother.”_

Harry was happy to meet someone from his family and decided to be friends with him.

“Hi!” Harry said before the boy could talk. “Are you Neville Longbottom?” he asked.

He looked surprised and said “Yes.”

Harry introduced himself. “Hi, I am Harry Potter.” Neville’s eyes widen when Harry said his name. “I am your godbrother!”

Neville was now shocked. “You are my godbrother?”

“Yes I am. Your mother was named my godmother while mine was named yours. So we are godbrothers. I was wondering if you wanted to be friends.”

Neville suddenly lit up. “I would be happy to be friends with you Harry.”

“Well sit with Ron and I and eat something.”

“I am Ron Weasley by the way. Harry did not introduce me.” He said while giving a look at Harry.

“Nice to meet you Ron. I would like to stay but I need to find my toad Trevor. Did any of you see a toad at all.”

When they shook their heads, he wailed, “I’ve lost him! He keeps getting away from me!”

“He’ll turn up,” said Harry.

“Yes,” said the boy miserably. “Well, if you see him …”

“Wait I have an idea.” Harry said. “Just sit and eat something I will come back.” He said while exiting the compartment and looking around the hallway.

_“What is your idea Harry?”_

_“Well I just remembered the Summoning Spell you showed me a few months ago. I just need to find someone that can do it.”_

_“Good idea son.”_

Harry quickly found Percy Weasley patrolling during his prefect duties and decided to ask him.

“Hey Percy.” When Percy turned around he greeted Harry and then said “What can I do for you?”

“My friend Neville lost his toad and I was wondering if you could do an _Accio_ and summon him here so we would not have to search for him any longer.”

“Sure I can do that. _Accio Neville’s Toad.”_ And waited. A few seconds later a toad came out flying out of nowhere and landed in Percy’s arms. “There you go Harry. Be sure to tell your friend not to loose it again.”

“Thanks Percy, see you later.”

When Harry entered the compartment again, he found a new person sitting there, a girl with lots of bushy brown hair and larger front teeth.

“Trevor!” Neville almost shouted before taking Trevor away from Harry’s arms. “Thank you Harry!” he said with a big smile.

“No problem Neville, we are family after all and family take care of each other.” _“At least usually.”_ He added for himself, something his parents did not miss.

He then decided to introduce himself to the new member of their group. “Hi I am Harry.” He said ready to shake her arm. “Harry Potter”.

“Hermione Granger.” She said. Are you really Harry Potter? I know all about you of course. I got a few extra books for background reading and you’re in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century._ ”

“Am I?” said Harry, feeling dazed. The fact that Harry was in multiple books was surprising for the Potters but then again, they quickly realised they should not be considering how Lord Voldemort was defeated.

“Goodness, didn’t you know, I’d have found out everything I could if it was me,” said Hermione. “Do either of you know what House you’ll be in? I’ve been asking around, and I hope I’m in House Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose House Ravenclaw wouldn’t be too bad. … Anyway, we’d better go and look for Neville’s toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we’ll be there soon.”

“I hope I will be in House Gryffindor. That is where the whole of my family is.” Said Ron.

“Same thing for me.” Said Harry. He then burst out laughing “I think my father would disinherit me if I ended up in House Slytherin!” he said, and James also started laughing while Lily snorted.

It took them a while to realise that Harry’s friends were all starting at him with curious looks in their faces. Harry suddenly realised that he implied that his parents were still alive and decided to fix his mistake before they thought he was mental.

“Why are you guys looking at me like that, I was just joking.”

“Personally, I think I will end up in Hufflepuff.” Said Neville. “I am barely a squib, my Gran always say that I am disappointing my father.”

“Rubbish.” Harry said. “I am sure your father must be telling you not to listen to your grandmother if she keep telling things like that to her grandson.” Neville’s face suddently turned red while it bared a look similar to shame and sadness.

 _“Oh no.”_ Lily said. _“Don’t tell me something happened to the Longbottoms.”_

The other three realised that Harry had touched a subject Neville did not want to talk about and Ron quickly decided to change the subject. “What’s your Quidditch team?” Ron asked.

“Er — I don’t know any,” Harry confessed.

“What!” Ron looked dumbfounded. “Oh, you wait, it’s the best game in the world —” And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he’d been to with his brothers and the broomstick he’d like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again. Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin’s robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he’d shown back in Diagon Alley.

“Is it true?” he said. “They’re saying all down the train that Harry Potter’s in this compartment. So it’s you, is it?”

“Yes,” said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.

“Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle,” said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. “And my names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.”

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

“Think my name’s funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford.” He then turned to Neville. “And you must be Longbottom. How are your parents?” Draco Malfoy said. Neville lept up from his seat and tried to get to Malfoy but was blocked by Harry. Malfoy then turned to Hermione and sniffed. “Smell like mud in there.” He said before turning toward Harry. “Why don’t you come with us instead of staying with them Potter? You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.”

He held out his hand to shake Harry’s, but Harry didn’t take it.

“I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks,” he said coolly.

Draco Malfoy didn’t go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.

“I’d be careful if I were you, Potter,” he said slowly. “Unless you’re a bit politer you’ll go the same way as your parents. They didn’t know what was good for them, either. Harry then jumped to his feat and shouted “OUT. GET OUT NOW!” before pushing the three boys out and slamming the door shut.

“Who does he think he is!” said Harry. “Really, he come here and insult my friends before asking me if I want to be friends with him? And when I say no he insults my parents?”

“I’ve heard of his family,” said Ron darkly. “They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they’d been bewitched. My dad doesn’t believe it. He says Malfoy’s father didn’t need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side.”

Both Harry and Ron were red in the face and angry. Neville looked sad again and did not speak a single word. Hermione was thinking before she asked “Why did Malfoy say that it smelled like mud when he looked at me?”

The three boys looked at each other uncomfortable. Neither Ron nor Neville spoke so Harry decided to start first.

“Hermione” he said hesitantly. “Before I say anything you must know that not everyone in the wizarding world is like that. It is only a small majority.”

“Okay but what did he mean?” she asked confused.

“Hermione you are a Muggleborn right?”

“Yes”

“Well some people in the Wizarding World think that witches and wizards that are Muggleborn or have some Muggle ancestry are somewhat inferior to what they call _pure-blood_. It is complete rubbish and blatant racism if you want my opinion but sadly this backward way of thinking as led us to two major wars in the last century. The War against Gellert Grindewald in the 1940s and the War against Lord Voldemort during the 1970s. Now it must be said that not all pure-blood think like that. A good exemple would be the Weasleys, – he said while pointing at Ron – the Longbottoms – pointing at Neville – and the Potters. Our families fought against pure-blood supremacy in the last war even if we were pure-blood ourselves.”

“I thought you were a half-blood.” Hermione said.

“I am but my father and the previous generations of Potters were pure-blood. Anyway Hermione, just know that the fact that you are Muggleborn does not define who you are. It is who you choose to be. Some people will try to drag you down because of your ancestry but you should not let them. If anyone call you a … a _Mudblood…_ just take your want and hex their asses!” finished Harry.

“Mudblood? That sound dirty.”

“That is their goal Hermione.” Continued Ron. “They want to make Muggleborns and everyone else think they are superior to them even if it is not the case at all. We are all wizards and that’s it. If anyone, like for instance Malfoy, call you that just ignore them. It won’t be always easy since it is an insult after all, but you should not think there is anything wrong with you just because your parents are Muggles.”

“Thanks Ron, Harry. Thanks for telling me this.”

A voice echoed through the train: “We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes’ time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.”

Harry’s stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor. They were finally arriving at Hogwarts.


	7. Chapter 7

Once the Hogwarts Express arrived at Hogsmeade Station, Harry and his new friends left the train and went out on the tiny, dark platform. Harry heard Hagrid’s voice calling for all First Years to join him. “All right there, Harry?” he asked before he turned away and said loudly “C’mon, follow me — any more firs’ years? Mind yer step, now! Firs’ years follow me!” Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much.

“Yeh’ll get yer firs’ sight o’ Hogwarts in a sec,” Hagrid called over his shoulder, “jus’ round this bend here.”

There was a loud “Oooooh!”

 _“Wow.”_ Said Harry.

_“Welcome to Hogwarts son. Personally, I always loved this place.”_

_“Same here. The Castle is really impressive in the inside, especially the Great Hall. Just wait until you get there.”_

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. “No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione. “Everyone in?” shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. “Right then — FORWARD!”

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood. “Heads down!” yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid’s lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door. Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry’s first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

“The firs’ years, Professor McGonagall,” said Hagrid.

“Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.”

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys’ house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

“Welcome to Hogwarts,” said Professor McGonagall. “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room. “The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours.

“The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you,” said Professor McGonagall. “Please wait quietly.”

“I wonder how we are sorted into Houses. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking.”

Harry snorted. “He was, all you have to do is wear the Sorting Hat which will look inside your mind to see which House which fit your personality the best.

“That’s it?” said Ron. “I am going to kill Fred and George!”

_“I just realised something, Mum, Dad.”_

_“What is it Harry?”_

_“Well the Sorting Hat can read our minds, right? What will happen when he discovers that you are both here?”_

_“An interesting question, but I don’t think the Sorting Hat will do anything, he will probably just be shocked that we are here and that we can also talk to it.”_

Suddently about twenty ghosts streamed through the back wall which made many people around Harry jump and gasp. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: “Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —”

“My dear Friar, haven’t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he’s not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?”

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

“We are waiting to be sorted sir!” said Harry loudly.

“New students!” said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. A few people nodded mutely.

“Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!” said the Friar. “My old House, you know.”

“Move along now,” said a sharp voice. “The Sorting Ceremony’s about to start.”

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

“Now, form a line,” Professor McGonagall told the first years, “and follow me.”

Harry and his friends all went at the start of the line and then followed Professor McGonagall through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, “It’s bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History.”

It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn’t simply open on to the heavens.

_“You were right Mom. It really is amazing!”_

_“It is a work of art. I am not sure there is a place like that anywhere else in the country.”_

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard’s hat.

 _“_ Well you were right Harry.” Whispered Neville. “I really thought we would have to fight a troll or something.” He said while Harry snorted. Everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing:

“Oh, you may not think I’m pretty,

But don’t judge on what you see,

I’ll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There’s nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can’t see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you’ve a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You’ll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don’t be afraid!

And don’t get in a flap!

You’re in safe hands (though I have none)

For I’m a Thinking Cap!”

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. “When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted.” She said. “Abbott, Hannah!”

Harry started to zone out when he became so concerned about where the Hat would place him.

_“What if I am not sorted? Will I be kicked out? I don’t want to end up back at the Dursleys!”_

_“Don’t worry Harry”_ said James while laughing. _“There is no reasons whatsoever that you would not be sorted. It might take him time to choose your House but you will be sorted. They would not have invited you to join the school if you were unsortable.”_

_“And what happen if he can’t decide between two Houses?”_

_“Simple. Give him your preference. The Hat take your’s into account before it sort you into a House.”_

“Granger, Hermione!” The sorting finally arrived to his friends. Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. After a few minutes of silence, the hat shouted “GRYFFINDOR!” Harry applauded with the rest of Gryffindor and of the First Years.

When it was Neville’s turn, the hat also took some time to decide itself before it shouted “GRYFFINDOR!”. Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to “MacDougal, Morag.”

Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, “SLYTHERIN!”

Harry slowly waited and was about to zone out again until he heard “Potter, Harry!”

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

“Potter, did she say?”

“The Harry Potter?”

The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.

“ _Hmm_ ,” said a small voice in his mind. “ _What is this? Well welcome back Mr. and Mrs. Potter, what a surprise! It is a new one for me, for once.”_ The had said.

 _“Well Hello Hat.”_ Said James. _“Long time no see! Now please tell me you will place Harry in Gryffindor!”_

_“James! Let the hat do its job! Anyway if someone here should give his opinion it should be Harry not us.”_

_“I agree. Now let’s see. Hmm, difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either altrough …_ ” the Hat then paused. _“It seams like you are not complete, that it interesting … Oh I see. No I can’t reveal it yet you will have to discover it yourself.”_

 _“Discover what?”_ asked Harry.

The Hat simply ignored him. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting. … So where shall I put you?”

 _“Gryffindor please?”_ asked Harry.

 _“Just like your father I see”_ laughed the hat. _“I shall grant your request…”_

 _“Wait!”_ said James. _“We must not forget tradition!”_

_“Tradition? What are you talking about James?”_

_“Mr. Potter is talking about the tradition that every Potter must ask if they can get the Sword of Godric Gryffindor.”_ Said the hat.

 _“Why would we ask for the Sword?”_ asked Harry.

_“I am not sure how it started but the first generations of Potters are descendants from Godric Gryffindor. I think the first Potter was Godric’s grandson who changed his last name or something. Legend say that only a true Gryffindor can get access to the Sword so the following generations of Potters all asked for the Sword of Godric Gryffindor even if lost hope of ever getting it many generations ago. Now we just ask as a tradition, not because we really want it, although it would have been nice if we could.”_

_“Mr. Potter is correct. I cannot count the number of Potters I sorted that all asked for the Sword. What no-one else know is that you need a specific condition to get access to the Sword.”_

_“That is interesting.”_ Said Lily. _“And what is that condition?”_

_“That I cannot say, you will need to discover it yourselves.”_

_“Discover it ourselves? Are you talking about the thing you said you could not reveal earlier? Does that mean –_ AH Bloody Hell!” Harry finished out loud. Something very hard and heavy had just landed onto the top of Harry’s head, almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard beneath it. A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs. He grasped the sword and pulled it out of the sword to the shock of the Hall’s occupants. As he put the Hat back on his head, sword in hand, he heard his father say _“Well I’ll be damned. My son got the Sword!”_

 _“Indeed Mr.Potter and like I said, you will have to discover the reasons why by yourselves._ GRYFFINDOR.” He shouted out-loud but nobody made a sound. Harry putted the Hat back on the stall and left to go toward the House Gryffindor table, as the Hall entered in a murmuring contest.

“Well…” the Headmaster Albus Dumbledore said “After this most unusual sorting I think it is time to continue.”

“How did you get that?” asked Hermione when Harry finally sat by her side.

“For one, I apparently am one of Godric Gryffindor’s descendants.” He said which made Hermione gasp. “And for second the Hat said that there was an important condition that needed to be fulfilled in order to receive the Sword and that I managed to fufill it.”

“And what is the condition?”

“I have no idea. Apparently, I will have to discover it myself.” He said before turning his attention toward the Head Table. Apparently something must have been there because Harry heard his mother shocked voice. _“Is that Severus?”_

 _“Is that Severus?”_ asked Lily Potter, shocked.

 _“What? Where?”_ said James.

_“He is at the Head table, so he became a Professor here if it indeed him.”_

_“Only one way to find out.”_ Harry said before asking Percy “Who’s that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?”

“Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he’s looking so nervous, that’s Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn’t want to — everyone knows he’s after Quirrell’s job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape.”

 _“Well it is him.”_ Sighed James. _“Just be careful around him Harry. He and I were big school rivals back in the days and it would not surprise me if he treated you worse than other students.”_

“GRYFFINDOR!” Harry heard from the Sorting Hat and saw Ron coming toward the House Gryffindor table. “Well done, Ron, excellent,” said Percy pompously across Harry.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

“Welcome!” he said. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!”

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry laughed out loud.

“He is a bit mad, isn’t he?”

“Mad?” said Percy airily. “He’s a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?” Harry’s mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

 _“I miss the Hogwarts feasts. If only I could eat!”_ said James.

_“Even in Death you are still thinking about food.”_

Before Harry could take a bite off his plate Professor McGonagall came to him and said “Mr.Potter, Headmaster Dumbledore wish to see you in his office after the feast. Professor Dumbledore like Lemon Drops.” She said with a wink.

“Alright thank you Professor.”

_“Why does he want to see me so soon?”_

_“Probably to wonder how you got a Sword in the middle of sorting.”_

_“What if he tries to take it away?”_

_“Technically it is yours so he cannot. But like you I am curious about what Dumbledore want with you so soon. It could be any sort of reasons really.” Said Lily._

_“And what is it about Lemon Drops?”_

_“It is the password to his office. Professor Dumbledore always take the name of a sweet as his password. Seams like today it happen to be his favourite one.”_

The conversation around the new Gryffindor First Years turned around families.

“I’m half-and-half,” said Seamus. “Me dad’s a Muggle. Mom didn’t tell him she was a witch ’til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him.” The others laughed.

“What about you, Neville?” said Ron.

“Well, my gran brought me up and she’s a witch,” said Neville, “but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me — he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned — but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced — all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here — they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad.”

“And what about you, Harry?” said a voice near him. Harry froze. He did not know what to say, so he stalled. “Well my parents were killed when I was one-year-old and I got put at my Aunt and Uncle house.” He said in a sad voice. Ron took pity on him and changed the target of the conversation. “Hermione?”

“My parents are both dentists.” She said.

“What are dentists?” Ron asked.

“They work on people’s teeths.”

“That … is interesting.”

At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

“Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well.” Dumbledore’s twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

“I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death. And now, bedtime. Off you trot! ”

Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did.

 _“He’s not serious?”_ he said.

 _“He’s mental if he is! Why would they have something that is clearly a danger to students IN A SCHOOL.”_ Said James. _“Another bloody reason why we can’t trust Albus Dumbledore anymore.”_

_“Huh. How do I get to the Headmaster’s Office?”_

_“Follow my instructions. I know the way by heart!”_ said James proudly.

 _“Not surprising”_ laughed Lily _“with how many times you ended up in detention!”_

And Harry followed his father’s lead, sword in hand, up to the Seven Floor just in front of a gargoyle. “Lemon Drop!” he said to the gargoyle which opened in front of him revealing a spiral staircase up to his office. “Enter.” He heard before he was able to knock on the door.

“Harry entered Dumbledore’s office and looked around. It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames.

“Ah welcome Harry to my office.” Dumbledore said in a jovial voice, twinkles in his eyes. “How are you in this fine day?”

“Good. Why did you ask me to your office Professor?”

“I have a few questions I want to ask, nothing big.” Dumbledore said which made James snort. _“Nothing big. Dumbledore never ask a question unless it is important.”_

“So” Dumbledore continued, not knowing about James’ interruption. “How have things been at your Aunt and Uncle so far?” Dumbledore asked innocently.

 _“What!?”_ said Lily. _“He is the one you put Harry there with my bloody sister and he does not know what happened there?”_

“What do you mean Headmaster?” asked in a venomous voice. “From my knowledge you are the one to have put me at my relatives’ house. Apparently, you are also my magical guardian so how are you now aware of what my life was at the Dursleys?”

“I did have someone watching you there Harry. Arabella Figg did send me some reports every year to tell me how things were going there.”

“And what does theses reports told you about my life?”

“Well from what I know you are someone who does a lot of chores outside, someone who does not seam to eat as much as a growing boy do but that seam generally happy.”

“HAPPY?” spat Harry. “I am not happy there! I hate it! I spend all my time doing chores. My relatives barely give me enough to feed me. My bedroom was the Cupboard Under the Stairs! That remind me, my first Hogwarts letter was addressed to the cupboard! How did this not give some huge redflags to you? I hate it there. I am mistreated and literally abused there! I know for a fact that my parents never wanted me to end up with them! And you put me there just because of a blood ward! Thank you, Headmaster, for condemning me to a miserable life and not even at least checking up once if I was happy there!” Harry said before turning around leaving a gobsmacked headmaster behind.

“Harry wait!” Dumbledore said before Harry opened the office door. “I did not know you lived in theses conditions. If I knew I would not have put you there.”

“You had a chance of knowing, my parents said in their Will, you know the one you sealed, that under no circumstances should I be placed with them. That should have hinted you that it would not have been a good idea at all to put me there and yet you did.”

“You unsealed your parents’ Will?” Dumbledore asked.

“Yes, when I went to Gringotts. I asked about where my godfather Sirius Black was when I was told he betrayed my parents and was sent to Askaban! I knew something was wrong and I asked to see my parents’ Will, guessing that if they wrote one while they were in the Fidelius they would probably have left some information about their Secret-Keeper and I was right! Peter Pettigrew was the Secret-Keeper Headmaster. Not Sirius Black. My godfather is innocent, something you could have proved had you not sealed the Will. I could have lived with him had he been free and not with my Aunt and Uncle.” After a few moments, Harry added “Why did you seal the Will Headmaster?”

“I sealed it because I thought it would be better if it was unsealed once the war was over.”

“And you did not unseal it because?”

“Because I forgot. It does not excuse what I did but I am a busy man Harry. The first few years after the war was a mess and I never came back to your parent’s Will.”

“Glad to see how important my family was to your Order.” Said Harry which made the Headmaster face turn slightly whiter. “Now is that all you wanted to ask me? My life at my relatives or did you want something else?”

“Huh yes” said Dumbledore. “I wanted to ask you about that sword of yours that you received during the sorting.”

“That is the Sword of Godric Gryffindor.” Harry said. Albus Dumbledore’s eye became slightly wider.

“If I might ask, how did you come into possession of this sword?”

“As a descendent of Godric Gryffindor I asked for it and the Hat gave it to me.”

“Just like that?”

“Well he implied that there were only two conditions to be able to receive the Sword: Be a True Gryffindor and an unknown condition that the Hat said that I had to discover myself. Now that I receive it it is now mine.” Harry said as a warning. He did not wish for the Headmaster to confiscate or take the Sword for himself.

“I understand. Do you wish to receive a scabbard for your sword?” asked Dumbledore.

“That would be appreciated. Thank you.”

“Alright then Harry. Just leave me the sword for safe-keeping and for the measurements until I send you a message when the scabbard is ready so that you can retrieve them both. Until then I think it is better if you go to bed. Tomorrow is the start of your lessons and I do not wish for you to be tired because of me. One last thing. The password for the House Gryffindor common room is ‘Caput Draconis’. Goodnight Mr.Potter” he said before Harry left.

 _“That was interesting.”_ Lily said while Harry was walking on the Seventh Floor. _“So he never bothered to check what was happening to you all this time… At least now he seamed to have realised his mistake. Hopefully he will be able to fix it.”_

_“Do you think he will be able to get Sirius out of prison now that I told him Peter was the Secret-Keeper?”_

_“I do not know Harry. I don’t think he can until he receives proof which could be either in the form of our Will or if Pettigrew is unmasked. Preferably both.”_

_“So now all we have to do is wait until we get a good opportunity to unmask Pettigrew?”_

_“Yes. I would suggest if you kept your copy of our Will in your bag or robes so when it happen you can also give it to the authorities as a proof that Sirius was not our Secret-Keeper.”_

_“For Pettigrew we go with the plan then?”_ asked James.

_“Yes, we go with your idea. After Professor McGonagall’s first class, don’t forget to ask her if there are any spells that can help you detect an Animagus.”_

_“I will Mum.”_

“Caput Draconis!” said Harry once he arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, the entrance to the House Gryffindor common room and dormitories.

Harry quickly found his dormitory and went to his bed. The only person still awake was Neville.

“Are you alright Harry? Why did Professor Dumbledore want to speak to you?”

“He asked me a few personal questions about my life prior to arriving here and he proposed to build a scabbard for the Sword.” He said while undressing.

“You know, it is going to be a bit weird to see a student walking around with a Sword around his waist.”

“Probably but then again it might just be hidden behind my robes. And that is for the times I put it on because it will probably stay in this room most of the time. Anyway, I am tired so good night Neville.”

“Goodnight Harry.” Neville said and a few seconds later Harry was asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**_September 2 nd 1991_ **

The first week of the school year had been interesting for one Harry James Potter. Harry quickly became overwhelmed on his first day at Hogwarts and if it had not been for his father’s excellent knowledge of the castle, he and Ron would probably had been lost multiple times trying to go to all their classes. Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory on the first day. All the staring and whispering his fellow students were doing made him incredibly uncomfortable. In classes, Harry quickly learned that there was a lot of more about magic than just silly wand waving and incantations. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up. Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry’s name, he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

When he and Ron arrived at Professor McGonagall’s first class, they quickly realised that they were alone and were the only ones that arrived with a few minutes to spare thanks to James’ knowledge. Harry quickly realised that they were not alone in fact, as one grey tabby cat was currently sitting on the Professor’s desk looking at both students. Harry grinned at the cat and said “Ron, do you think we can pet the cat?” Ron of course saw nothing wrong with it and started petting the cat which made Harry laugh. Ron was confused at his friend’s behaviour until the cat transformed into Professor McGonagall to Ron’s horror.

“Welcome Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley.” she said. “Thank you, Mr. Weasley, it did feel quite good.” She added with a small smile which made Ron’s face become all red and made Harry laugh even harder. Of course, both his parents were also laughing in Harry’s mind which did not help Harry calm down. When the rest of the class arrived, Professor McGonagall gave her start of term speech.

“Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,” she said. “Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.”

Harry had been quite right to think she wasn’t a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.

_“Don’t worry about that Harry. Professor McGonagall is strict in classes, but she is also fair. And outside her functions as a Professor she is quite a nice person. She is my godmother you know?”_

_“Really?”_

_“Yep. My father Fleamont Potter was friends with Minerva so when I was born, they named her my godmother. Of course, I did cause her a bit of problems when I was at Hogwarts…”_

_“A bit?”_ snorted Lily.

_“Alright a lot of problems then. But even then, she was always lovely. In a way she was like my grandmother and I would not be surprised if you saw her as that as well after a few months Harry.”_

_“I am not saying it is not interesting, but might I remember both of you that we are in class now? Let Harry focus on his classes and then shush!”_

_“Yes love.”_

After a few demonstrations the students were all very impressed and couldn’t wait to get started, but soon realized they weren’t going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Harry and Hermione had made any difference to their matches; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy. Once the class was over Harry stayed behind.

“Professor, I have a question.” He said.

“All you need is to ask Mr. Potter.”

“I was wondering if there was a way to detect if an animal was a witch or wizard like when you were a cat before the start of the class.”

“Indeed, you can Mr. Potter. There is a neat spell, called the _Animagus Reversal Spell_. The incantation is _Exanimagnum._ ” Professor McGonagall then showed Harry the wand movement. “If casted successfully on a transformed Animagus you should see a bright blue light before the Animagus is forced to transform. If you do it on an animal, you should not see any light and the spell will have no effect. Now try on me.” She said before transforming.

 _“Exanimagnum!”_ he said while pointing his wand at his Professor. A bright blue light showed around the silver cat before she was forced to transform back into her human form.”

“Good job Mr. Potter.”

“Thank you, Professor. Now I think I should go to lunch before the food disappear.”

“If you have any more questions just come to my office. Good day Mr. Potter.”

Once outside the classroom, James spoke. _“So now you have the spell. We just need to find a proper moment to do it on Wormtail.”_

_“Wouldn’t it be a bit dangerous if I force him back into his Human form? I don’t want him to attack me and I can’t really ask for a teacher to come with me once to unmask him.”_

_“You are right, I did not think about that. I think for the next few nights we will teach you a few more spells to defend yourself. What do you think Lils?”_

_“It is a good idea. I think Harry should learn_ Incarcerous _,_ Expelliarmus...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it... The last chapter wasn't completed.


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